Armenian Church of Iași

The Armenian Church of Iași, dedicated to St Mary (the Dormition, 15 August), stands at 22 Strada Armeană in the city centre, right next to St Sava's Church. It is the only surviving Armenian place of worship in Iași and a reminder of the Armenian community that settled in northern Moldavia in the Middle Ages. In the courtyard is the Armenian Athenaeum, built in 1932 and now used as the parish house. A stone plaque with an Armenian inscription, kept in a niche of the transept, states that the church's foundations were laid in 1395; some historians question the inscription's authenticity, without ruling out the date. In 1451 the church received an Armenian Gospel book copied in 1351 at Caffa in Crimea, now kept at the Museum of the Armenian Diocese in Bucharest. In 1594 the church was looted by the Cossacks of Ataman Loboda. The building was rebuilt from its foundations in 1803, renovated in 1929, and became the city's only Armenian church after St Gregory the Illuminator's Church burned down in the fire of 19 July 1827. The church is built of stone and handmade brick on a trefoil plan, with two towers (the Pantocrator tower and the bell tower) and two entrances, on the west and south sides. The wooden iconostasis, with 15 icons and two royal doors, has the icon of the Virgin and Child at its centre; as in other Armenian churches, there are two side altars besides the main one. The church holds 13 icons painted on wood in 1812 and 11 oil paintings on canvas, and the smallest of its three bells dates from 1607. A few funerary monuments from the former parish cemetery survive in the courtyard. Badly damaged by the 1977 earthquake, the church was restored between 2005 and 2008 and reconsecrated on 26 October 2008 by Karekin II, Catholicos of All Armenians. Services are held once a month. The church is a historic monument, LMI code IS-II-m-B-03713, and the Armenian Athenaeum has the code IS-II-m-B-03712.