Marmashen sits low, on a grassy terrace beside the Akhurian river in the province of Shirak, sheltered from the wind that scours the surrounding plateau. Trees and running water make the setting unusually gentle for an Armenian monastic site, and the buildings are all the more striking for it. The group consists of several churches of the medieval period, built in a warm reddish volcanic stone whose colour deepens at the end of the day. The principal church is a tall, tightly composed volume, its drum crowned by a conical roof and its facades articulated by slender blind arcading, a solution characteristic of Armenian architecture in the centuries of the Bagratid kingdom. Beside it stand smaller churches and the foundations of others, cleared by excavation. The complex has suffered from earthquakes and long neglect, and the ruined portions are left legible rather than rebuilt, so that construction technique is visible in section. Filmed in 4K, with aerial views following the river and low-angle light on the red stone, the programme offers a quieter counterpoint to Armenia's cliff-top monasteries and suits strands on sacred sites and medieval architecture.
