The church of Saint Prkich is one of the buildings registered as immovable cultural property within the Ani archaeological site. It is also known as the Keçeli church, the Church of the Redeemer and the Ruined Church. Built east of the city, near the great cathedral, it was raised in 1035 by the marzban Abu'l Gharib, according to the foundation inscription on its front. The Atabegs had it restored in 1291 and again in 1342. In the 1930s lightning struck it and half the building collapsed.
It is built of regular cut stone in yellow, red and grey, domed, and made of two parts. Set on a circular platform of which only one step is now visible, it is nineteen-sided on the outside and has an octoconch plan within — eight apses.
The walls are covered with frescoes known to have been painted in the thirteenth century by an artist named Sarkis P'arçkans. Their colours have faded badly, and what can still be identified are the Last Supper on the half dome and the figures of the evangelists.
Getting there
- Access
- Buses run twice a day from central Kars; tour companies and private cars also reach it.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Kars as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from -10.7 °C in January to 17.9 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in July and August; rainfall is heaviest in May (83 mm) and lightest in January (23 mm). Long-term means for 1931-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
