Eurasian Studies Balkans, Anatolia, Iran, Caucasus and Central Asia Studies Notebooks

Series | Eurasian Studies
Edited book | «A mari usque ad mare»
Chapter | Van: il Paradiso Perduto degli Armeni

Van: il Paradiso Perduto degli Armeni

Abstract

The region of Lake Van played a key role in the history and culture of the Armenians: Van in this world, Paradise in the next. So the Armenians used to speak about this region characterized by a relatively mild climate, where for millennia they have lived and built cities, villages, fortresses, monasteries and hermitages. From the ninth to the sixth centuries BC the region of Van has been the heart of the Urartian civilization. Thereafter and until the 1915 genocide this region, often called Vaspurakan in the Armenian sources, has been a major center of historical Armenia. Many monuments of the ancient Armenian history and culture still survive around the shores of the lake. In no other region of historical Armenia the contrast between past and present is equally strong and painful.


Open access

Language: it

Keywords Urartu • Armenian Revolutionary Movement • Kingdom of Vaspurakan • Armenian Genocide

Copyright © 2016 Aldo Ferrari. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/6969-085-3/EUR-6-19


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