CATHEDRAL

Stepanakert was sorely lacking places of worship. The Sourp Astvadzamor Hovanu (Protection of the Holy Mother of God) Cathedral, consecrated by Catholicos Karekin II on 7 April 2019, fills this gap, with its imposing polygonal structure of pink tufa topped with a large dome that rises up on a square in the south of the city. Overshadowing Shushi Cathedral, it is the main church of the diocese of Artsakh, which had more than 450 churches and monasteries before its suppression by Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1920s and embodies its renaissance