Chaczkar w Elblągu
Photo Aleksander Durkiewicz · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Chaczkar w Elblągu is an Armenian carved stone stele (chaczkar) set up in 2005 in front of the Church of Divine Mercy (kościół Miłosierdzia Bożego) in Elbląg, Poland. It was made of Armenian volcanic tuff and weighs 500 kg.
It commemorates the 95th anniversary of the Armenian genocide of 1915, the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the Armenian alphabet, and Polish-Armenian friendship.
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Article
Chaczkar w Elblągu
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Polish): Chaczkar w ElbląguCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Polish): Chaczkar w ElbląguCC BY-SA 4.0
The chaczkar is made of Armenian volcanic tuff and has the typical features of such monuments, including intricately carved interlace (plecionka), characteristic of memorials produced in Armenia. It weighs 500 kg.
The chaczkar was made by Robert Howsepian, a sculptor living in Yerevan, and was brought to Poland by Armenians living in Kielce.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Polish): Chaczkar w ElbląguCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Polish): Chaczkar w ElbląguCC BY-SA 4.0
The chaczkar was made by Robert Howsepian, a sculptor living in Yerevan, and was brought to Poland by Armenians living in Kielce. After it had been erected in front of the church it was consecrated on 30 October 2005 by Bishop Jan Styrna and by the Armenian chaplain, Fr Artur Awdalian.
The ceremony was attended by Armenians living in Elbląg, by representatives of the Armenian communities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Kartuzy, Pruszcz Gdański, Warsaw, Gliwice, Kraków and Królewiec, and by representatives of the Elbląg authorities. Visitors from Armenia included Ałła Kuźmińska, president of the Union of Poles in Armenia Polonia, the deputy of the Armenian National Assembly Agasi Arszakian, Suren Czachmachczjan, and the maker of the chaczkar, Robert Howsepian.
The monument was erected to mark the 95th anniversary of the Armenian genocide of 1915, the 1600th anniversary of the creation of the Armenian alphabet, and Polish-Armenian friendship. On Genocide Remembrance Day, Armenians living in Elbląg gather at the cross to pay homage to the dead.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Polish): Chaczkar w ElbląguCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Polish): Chaczkar w ElbląguCC BY-SA 4.0
The type stele is a form and not a date. Steles are stone or wooden slabs, generally taller than they are wide, erected as monuments, and the group includes modern memorials as well as carved stones of earlier periods.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Steles in Europe and elsewhere
A stele (or stela) is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. The Greek and Roman use is well known. Its surface often has text, ornament, or both, inscribed, carved in relief or painted. Steles were created for many reasons: grave steles served funerary or commemorative purposes, slabs of stone were used as Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers, and steles were occasionally erected as memorials to battles.
The Atlas applies the heading to a very mixed group of monuments: carved standing stones of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, funerary steles of the classical and medieval periods, Roman milestones and cippi, medieval cross-stones, wayside crosses, and modern memorials. A reader should treat the type "stele" as a form and not as a date. Prehistoric steles, such as the statue menhirs of the Copper Age, are usually carved with a human figure and sometimes with weapons.
Because many steles carry a date or the name of a ruler, they are among the best dated stone monuments; for those that do not, the Atlas gives a broad range based on style.
The best-known examples show the range. The Gwanggaeto Stele in China, erected in 414 CE, is the largest engraved stele in the world; Maya stelae of the Classic Period (about 250 to 900 CE) are tall sculpted shafts paired with low circular altars; the first Armenian khachkars date from the ninth century; and the Grave Stele of Hegeso in Athens was carved about 410 to 400 BCE.
When visiting, read the inscription and note the carved figure or symbol.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Stele, Wikipedia: Statue menhir, Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: Wayside cross, Wikipedia: Grave Stele of Hegeso, Wikipedia: Gwanggaeto Stele · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1915
Chaczkar został postawiony na pamiątkę 95. rocznicy ludobójstwa Ormian w 1915 roku, 1600. rocznicy powstania ormiańskiego alfabetu i dla upamiętnienia przyjaźni polsko-ormiańskiej.
Source - 2005
Chaczkar w Elblągu – ormiańska kamienna stela ustawiona w 2005 roku przed kościołem Miłosierdzia Bożego w Elblągu.
Source - 2005
Po ustawieniu przed kościołem został poświęcony 30 października 2005 roku przez biskupa Jana Styrnę i duszpasterza Ormian ks.
Source
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Where it stands
Poland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 54°09′32″ N, 19°24′51″ EFor a GPS or map app: 54.15897, 19.41408
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Cmentarzysko kurhanowe w Piórkowie4300–3500 BCE
Odry Stone Circles1–400 CE
Cmentarzysko kurhanowe w Samławkach4300–3500 BCE- MegalithSteingrab Schimmerwitz IV
- Megalithic tombGroßsteingräber bei Siemirowice3500–2800 BCE
- MegalithGroßsteingrab Schöneichen II
- MegalithGroßsteingrab Schöneichen I
- Megalithic tombGroßsteingräber bei Dąbrówno3500–2800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q65165085wikidata.org
Image files
- Chaczkar w Elblągu.jpgAleksander DurkiewiczCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Chaczkar w Elblągu" (Polish), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Polish): Chaczkar w ElbląguCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q65165085CC0