9th Iranian heritage registered to UNESCO | The Oldest Church in the World

TEHRAN – The Iranian churches St. Thaddeus, St. Stephanus, and Dzordzor (Zorzor) in East Azerbaijan Province and West Azerbaijan Province were registered on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

The decision was made during the World Heritage Committee session in Quebec, Canada on July 6.

The UNESCO website described the monuments as “examples of outstanding universal value of the Armenian architectural and decorative traditions” and adding, “They bear testimony to very important interchanges with the other regional cultures, in particular the Byzantine, Orthodox and Persian.”

The committee also asked IRAN to give an inclusive report on the modifications to be carried out on the Jahan-Nama Tower by February 2009, Iranian representative in the session Mahdi Musavi told the Persian service of CHN on Monday.

The tower spoils the horizontal view of the Naqsh-e Jahan Square, another Iranian complex in Isfahan Province, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979.

In addition, the committee decided IRAN’s Bam Cultural Landscape will remain on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger until 2010. Bam, a historical city located in Kerman Province in southern IRAN, was almost totally destroyed by a devastating earthquake on December 26, 2003.

Bam Ancient City

—St. Thaddeus Church—

The St. Thaddeus Church, also known as the Black Church (Qara Kelissa), is probably IRAN’s most interesting and notable Christian monument, located near the Chalderan region in Maku, West Azerbaijan.

Christians from all over the world annually gather at the church on July 1 for their annual commemoration of the martyrdom of St. Thaddeus.

One of the 12 disciples, St. Thaddeus, also known as St. Jude, (not to be confused with Judas Iscariot), was martyred while spreading the Gospel. He is revered as an apostle of the Armenian Church. As legend has it, a church dedicated to him was first built on the present site in 68 CE.

Nothing appears to remain of this original church, which was extensively rebuilt in the 13th century, but some sections around the altar may date to the 10th century. Most of the present structure dates to the 17th century and is of carved sandstone. The oldest sections are made of black and white stone.

The Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew traveled through Armenia in 45 CE to preach the word of God. Many people were converted and numerous secret Christian communities were established there.

Around that time, Abgar died after ruling for 38 years and the Armenian kingdom was split into two parts. His son Ananun crowned himself in Edessa, while his nephew Sanatruk ruled in Greater Armenia. About 66 CE, Ananun gave the order to kill St. Thaddeus in Edessa. The king’s daughter Sandokht, who had converted to Christianity, was martyred with Thaddeus. Her tomb is located near the St. Thaddeus Church.

The church is surrounded by thick walls which form the outer ramparts of some abandoned monastery buildings.

—St. Stephanus Church—

According to Hayk Ajimian, an Armenian scholar and historian, the church was originally built in the ninth century CE, but repeated earthquakes in region severely damaged the original structure.

Located near Marand in East Azerbaijan, the church was renovated during the reign of the Safavid king Shah Abbas (1588-1629).

The general structure of the St. Stephanus Church, which also known as St. Stepanos, mostly resembles Armenian and Georgian architecture and the inside of the building is adorned with beautiful paintings by Honatanian, a renowned Armenian artist.

The Armenian Orthodox primate of the diocese of Tehran, Archbishop Sebuh Sarkisian, said on Thursday that some of the remains recently discovered in IRAN’s St. Stephanus Church may be the bones of John the Baptist.

In July 2005, Shahriar Adl, the director of the team documenting three Iranian churches for registration on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, said that they had discovered a box at the St. Stephanus Church containing the bones of one of the successors of the Apostles of Jesus.

The Armenian Orthodox primate of the diocese of Tehran, Archbishop Sebuh Sarkisian, approved the report in his August 2005 interview, adding, “About the box, which contains the remains of the apostles’ bodies and was found under the altar of the St. Stephanus Church, it is said that the box contains the body of John the Baptist. According to Armenian historian Arakel Davrizhetsi (17th century), the box, which was located under the main altar of the Church of the Holy Trinity in old Jolfa and contained the sacred remains and a scroll, was given to Shamun, the archbishop of St. Stephanus Church, after the Church of the Holy Trinity was destroyed.”

“The remains may very likely have historic value. According to the tradition of the church, we know that after St. Gregory the Illuminator was consecrated as archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, in a friendly gesture, he gave some remains of John the Baptist to Quintius, the archbishop of the region, during his return trip to Armenia. The remains were transferred to the John the Baptist Cathedral in the city of Mush in Armenia.

“Now, the remains were somehow transferred to another place, as a consequence of the wars and chaotic conditions prevailing in the land over past centuries, in which believers and church fathers changed the location of the box in order to safeguard it. A French traveler (Jean Baptiste Tavernier, 1605-1689), who saw a box at the St. Stephanus Church when he visited the place in the 17th century, had said that the box contained the body of one of the Apostles,” Sarkisian said.

Some historical sources, such as some photos kept at Tehran’s Golestan Palace, and the photos taken by Ali Khan Vali, the governor of northern Azerbaijan during the reign of the Qajar king Nasser ad-Din Shah and kept in the Adl family archives, indicate that the bones of Saint Stephanus (Saint Stephen), Saint Matthew, and the Prophet Daniel, are being kept in the St. Stephanus Church.

—Dzordzor Church—

Located in the village of Barone in Zangar Valley of Chaldoran region in the north of West Azerbaijan Province, the church was built in 1315 CE.

— Iranian sites on World Heritage List–

1. Chogha Zanbil, Khuzestan Province, 1979
2. Persepolis, Fars Province, 1979 [ACHAEMENID ERA]
3. Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan Province, 1979 [SAFAVID ERA]
4. Takht-e Soleiman, West Azerbaijan Province, 2003
5. Pasargadae, Fars Province, 2004 [ACHAEMENID ERA]
6. The city of Bam and its Cultural Landscape, Kerman Province, 2004
7. Soltanieh Dome, Zanjan Province, 2005
8. Bisotun, Kermanshah Province, 2006 [ACHAEMENID ERA]

9. Northwest IRAN’s historic churches St. Thaddeus and St. Stephanus, West Azerbaijan Province; and Dzordzor (Zorzor), East Azerbaijan Province, 2008

Adapted from: Tehran Times

Know More About Iranian Culture By Our Seven Questions

1) Which country was not part of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid era?

Except small part of China, as a whole China was not part of the Persian Empire.
With rulers such as Cyrus II (Know as Cyrus the Great, the first person whose wrote first bill of Human rights) and Darius I (the Great), the Persian Empire grew to include more than 23 different cultures (Countries).
It extended from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indus River and encompassed present-day Greece, Babylonia , Egypt, India, Turkey, Azerbijan, Armenia, Georgia, Jordan, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Caucasus region, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, part of Arabia, Emirate, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, and some other countries which I forgot.


2) What language is most commonly spoken in IRAN?

IRAN is home not only to Persians, but Turk, Azeri, Baluchi, and Kurd. These people speak their own language, but most can also speak Persian (Parsi).


3) Which people or groups did not invade the Persian Empire?

The prosperity and location of the Persian Empire made it susceptible to invaders, who included Drunk Alexander, the Arabs, Turks, Genghis Khan, and the Mongols and Baribarians. Egyptions were the only people which did not invade the Persian Empire and were a loyal ally for Persians.


4) What the term of "IRAN" means?

The word "IRAN" comes form the term "Aryan", which means, loosely Noble.
"IRA N" is derived from Arya and Airya, which mean "Noble" or Respectable" and are used to describe the people of Persia.
The term "IRA N" was used around the third century B.C., when a ruler described his Empire as Iranshahr-and himself as the king of kings.
And also was used around 7,500 to 10,000 years ago with term of "Aeiraniovich" to describe the region of Persians which means "The Region of Scientists People".
"Aeiran" means "Great scientist" and "Vich" means "Region or Place".


5) How the Persian Empire's ancient capital city, Persepolis, destroyed?

It was set on fire. After Drunk Alexander (Hatred character in ancient history for all Persians, like Arabs) and his army conquered the Persians, they looted the city. During a celebratory banquet, the story goes, Drunk Alexander took a woman's suggestion to join a procession to burn down the royal palace and other parts of the city. The ruins were not studied until the 1930s, when the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute sponsored an excavation of the area.


6) How long did it take a relay of couriers to travel the 1,600-mile Royal Road in Persia?

A postage stamp

Nine Days. The couriers who used the Royal Road, which ran from Susa in the southwest (Northwest of Persian Gulf) to Sardis in the north near the Aegean sea, were stopped by "neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night", according to greek historian Herodotus. It took them only nine days to deliver a message across the Empire.
Persians where the first people and first nation in the World who established "Post Organization" 2,500 years ago. [See Also]

7) Approximately what percentage of IRAN's population is Muslim?

According the eighth edition of National Geographic's Atlas of the World, 95 percent of Iranians are Muslim; the remaining 5 percent are Zoroastrians [The first religion of Persians were Zoroastrianism], Jews [It goes back to 2,500 years ago when Cyrus the Great freed 25,000 Jews whom were under rack of Babylon's governor and was slave which was opposite of Cyrus's Bill of Human Rights] and Christians.