Spitakavor Monastery stands on the slopes of Mount Teksar, about 4 miles (7 kilometers) north of Vernashen, near Yeghegnadzor in Armenia. It was built by princes of the Proshyan dynasty. Prince Eachi began the Church of the Holy Mother of God, and his son Amir Hasan II completed it in 1321. A narthex was added by 1330, and the same year a three-story bell tower was built.
The church is built of white felsite. Carved images include Mary over the entrance and a relief of Eachi and his son. The monastery is reached on foot or by all-terrain vehicle.
In the fourteenth century Timur's armies destroyed the walls and narthex. The church survived without restoration until 1604. Garegin Nzhdeh, who died in a Soviet prison in 1955, was secretly buried in the yard, and Armenians make a pilgrimage there each June 17.
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