Three years ago, my friend Edward Misserlian (San Francisco), who was in Yerevan at that time, gave to me the second publication (1979) of this book. He told me, “read it when you have time.”
I read the writing on the cover of the book “Artashes Vruyr, in Ani”.
I was familiar with the name Vruyr from the Khojavank pantheon in Tiflis. There, next to merited Armenia cultural figures, lays to rest renowned Armenian actor Aram Vruyr. Artashes was his son and in the first two decades of 1900, together with his father he spent the months of June, July and August, the summers of his childhood and youth in the last capital city of the Bagratuni’s, Ani’s ruins.
After reading a couple of pages, I decided to publish it in parts on the website of ANI center.
During our next meeting I told Edward Misserlian that I had read the book in one breath and compared to the other chapters I had read, this was the only one that described Ani’s last inhabitants, the last abbot…
We decided to publish it in Armenian and also translate it into English.
Besides, we thought it would be necessary to place new pictures taken from today’s Ani next to the pictures taken over 100 years ago.
For this specific purpose, photograph Gevorg Haroyan and I travelled to Ani in September 2019.
I have visited Ani several times. This visit was different. We walked around the 1000-year-old capital city for an entire day, took pictures of all of the churches: standing, semi-ruined and ruined and cooled down in the waters of the rivers Akhuryan and Ani.
Gevorg also gave to me his other photographs taken in Ani during the past few years.
I have nothing else to add but to thank Gevorg, Heghinar Melkom Melkomian who translated the book from Armenian into English, Armenuhi Manukyan who typed the Armenian text and Lusakn printing house.
My special gratitude goes to my friend Edward Misserlian and his wife Vergine, who not became the inspiration behind the republishing of this book, but also financially supported it. Thank you for your friendship and for keeping Ani, even if in ruins, in our hearts, in our minds and in our prayers.
The rest is in the book.
Tatul Hakobyan
ANI Center Coordinator
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Artashes Vruyr spent his childhood and adolescence (1901 – 1917) in Ani, where his father, the renowned actor Aram Vruyr, participated for several years in the [Nicholas] Marr expedition, excavating the ancient city.
Later on, the young Artashes Vruyr becomes one of the enthusiastic workers on the expedition and actively participates in the study and visual documentation of Ani and its adjacent monasteries and monuments.
The magnificent monuments, monasteries and churches, fortresses and gates of historic Ani were deeply and indelibly impressed on Young Artashes’ memory and with these impressions and memories and the relentless curiosity of his childhood and adolescence, he relates this in such a manner that the reader can picture the semi-destroyed buildings, fortresses, walls, underground passages and labyrinths, surrounding gorges and hills of the ancient city and the River Akhuryan, eternally coursing by Ani.
In his memoirs Artashes Vruyr describes the selfless and devoted work of the expedition in Ani with great love and gratitude. Ashkharbek Loru [Loris]-Melik Kalantar, Hovsep Orbeli, Toros Toramanyan, Nicholas Buniatyan, Taragros [Ter-Vardanyan], Nicholas Tokarski, Levon Kalantar, Aram Vruyr, Giorgii Chubinov and others participated in the expedition, led by Marr.
Even though the author did not intend to describe the participants, different brief and expressive descriptions of the expedition, photographs, gatherings and various events allow the reader to imagine many of the participants of the expedition.
In particular, Artashes Vruyr has described some of the ordinary workers, scantly, yet so distinctively that they stay in the reader’s memory forever.
