The domes of the two main churches were heavily damaged in an earthquake in 1927 . The buildings were conserved during the period of the Armenian SSR , and rebuilding work started in the 1980s . A series of nationwide problems led to a halt in the rebuilding for about a decade as the 1988 Armenian earthquake hit , the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 , the Nagorno-Karabakh War broke out , and Armenia was blockaded by its two allied Turkic neighbors . Rebuilding work resumed at Kecharis in 1998 and finished in 2000 . The restarted work was paid for by an Armenian donor from Vienna , Vladimir Harutyunian , in memory of his parents Harutyun and Arsenik
1988 Armenian earthquake
1988 Armenian earthquake
Kecharis Monastery