Back to Dilijan to see the monastery.

They give you so much food at breakfast, there's  no way you can eat  it it all. Lots of bread with every meal , two boiled eggs, two Vienna like sausages which you wrap in a tortia and  five thick slices of their salty cheese that you eat with scrambled oily egg, and a bowl of jam for the fresh bread.

After I gougged myself, I headed to Dilijan ad I wanted to see the Monastery I missed when I took the wrong tracks last week. 
Went back up on the same road i had come down on but then turned north up to Sevan Lake and followed it up to Sevan. Had to pull off the road at a hotel to avoid a massive downpour for an hour and then proceed. 
Stopped to see The Writer's House and then continued on to Dilijan to the same place I was at last week , arriving at 5 pm. I quicly changed and rode up to the monastery and then had a twenty minute hike into the forest and found it. Was built in 1247 and still standing, bolted back to the bike and got to my room and the heavens opened up and had a massive thunderstorm  for hours, so couldn't leave to go forage for food but luckily had some beer to fill me up. 

  



    The Writer's  House







     Old Soviet viewpoint in Sevan

MATSOVANK MONASTERY

According to a legend told by local residents, a prince once lived here, who wanted to thank God for the victory, but did not find a temple nearby. Then the prince went deep into the Dilijan forest, climbed the steep slopes and disappeared... the prince was battered, wounded and gloomy. When he returned, he was unrecognizable: he literally glowed all over, there was not a scratch on him. Later, the church of Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God) was built on the site of his prayers, but it is still called Matosavank - in honor of the first abbot of Matos.

Description

Matosavank is a temple complex of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the 13th century, 4 km west of Dilijan, near the village of Shamakhyan. The complex consists of a small church, a vestibule and a scriptorium (book depository), located right next to each other. A cemetery is located to the southeast of the buildings. The small church of 1205 was built with large semi-finished stones. An inscription about the foundation is carved on the facade stone, and khachkars stand on both sides of it. Under the wall of the church, in the northern part, a khachkar of special beauty, dating from 1251

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