Kish Albanian Church (near Shaki)
One of the oldest churches in the Caucasus, linked to the ancient Caucasian Albanian kingdom.
About
The Kish church stands in the village of Kish, in the foothills above Shaki, a small and quiet stone building with a round apse and a simple tiled roof. Its walls are plain and sturdy, and it sits in a courtyard under old trees with a view toward the mountains.
A small museum beside it displays archaeological finds from the area, and the village around is peaceful, with mountain views. It is an easy half-day trip from Shaki, a good counterpart to the busy old town and the decorated palace.
History
Caucasian Albania was an ancient kingdom, unrelated to the Balkan country of the same name, covering much of what is now Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan. It adopted Christianity in the early fourth century, and later churches in the region were part of its own Albanian Church. A local tradition links the church at Kish with the apostle Elisha, a disciple who is said to have preached in the area in the first century, and dates the first chapel on the site to that time. Archaeologists and historians generally date the present building to the twelfth century or thereabouts, though earlier shrines may have stood on the spot. The building was rediscovered by outside scholars in the twentieth century, and the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl took an interest in it and in the Albanian past of the region. It was restored in the early 2000s, and is now a museum. Over the centuries, the region came under Persian, Ottoman and Russian influence, and the Albanian Church was gradually absorbed into the Armenian Apostolic Church, which is why the origin of the building has been much discussed.