TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Post Company plans to unveil a commemorative postal stamp to pay tribute to the Monastery of Saint Thaddeus, a historical monument in West Azarbaijan province.
The unveiling ceremony is scheduled to be held during the joint exhibition of Iran and Armenia postal stamps in Arch Bishop Ardak Manoukian Museum in Tehran on April 11, Iran’s Post Company announced on Tuesday.
The exhibit, which is set to be held online due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, will showcase a selection of historical Armenian stamps as well as Iranian stamps issued on Persian New Year (Noruz). It is being co-organized by the Post and Communications Museum and Arch Bishop Ardak Manoukian Museum.
Also known as the Qareh Klise (“the Black Church”), the monastery is one of the oldest surviving Christian monuments in the country. It is situated in Chaldoran county some 20 kilometers from Maku, adjacent to the borders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.
The ancient Church shows off elaborate bas-reliefs of flowers, animals, and human figures on its façade and exterior walls. It bears verses of Old and New Testament in Armenian calligraphy as well.
Together with St. Stepanos Monastery and the Chapel of Dzordzor, Qareh Klise was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2008 under the name “Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran”. All three sites are located in West Azarbaijan and are of high significance from historical and cultural perspectives. They bear credible testimony to interchanges with the ancient regional societies in particular the Byzantine, Orthodox, and Persian.
UNESCO has it that the churches bear examples of outstanding universal values of the Armenian architectural and decorative traditions.
