Church of Saint Thaddeus
— — a black-and-white stone church alone on the steppe.
Not only on a wall.
“An Armenian monastery on a remote plateau in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran, about 20 kilometres from the town of Chaldoran and the Turkish border. Local Armenians call it Qara Kelisa, the Black Church, for the dark stone of its oldest section. The present building combines a 14th-century core with an 1810s rebuilding that added a wide white-stone hall and conical drums. Tradition holds the site as the burial place of the Apostle Thaddeus and dates the first church here to the 1st century. The plateau is empty around it, and the wind comes off the high country. from the studio
Church of Saint Thaddeus, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Monastery of Saint Thaddeus, Qara Kelisa in Persian and Surb Tadei Vank in Armenian, stands on a plateau in Chaldoran County, West Azerbaijan Province, in northwest Iran, about 20 kilometres from the Turkish border. The site is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran, inscribed in 2008 alongside the Monastery of Saint Stepanos and the Chapel of Dzordzor. The oldest surviving fabric dates to the 14th century after Mongol-era destructions, with a major rebuilding in the early 1800s under Qajar patronage that added the white-stone hall, the western entry, and the larger conical drum. Armenian tradition dates the original church to the 1st century.
The church takes its Persian name, Qara Kelisa or the Black Church, from the dark basalt of its eastern section, which contrasts with the lighter cut stone of the 19th-century western hall. Bas-relief carving runs across the exterior walls, including figures of saints, biblical scenes, and the geometric interlace common to Armenian church architecture from the Bagratid period onward. The site preserves the conical drum form characteristic of Armenian sacred buildings, two distinct drums marking the older and newer sections. The defensive walls around the complex were rebuilt in stone in the early 19th century and enclose a courtyard with cells and pilgrimage halls.