Amaras Monastery is located in Sos village, in the Martouni district of Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh`s historical province Myus Haband). According to the historian Faustus Byuzand (Faustus of Byzantium) the first church of the monastic complex was founded by Gregory the Illuminator. Its construction was finished by his grandson bishop Grigoris who was killed in 338 and buried in Amaras.
At the beginning of the 5th century Mesrop Mashtots, the creator of Armenian alphabet, opened the first Armenian school in Amaras which gave urge for spreading Armenian language. Since then Amaras became one of the largest religious and cultural centers of Armenia.
Amaras monastery, as well as a large number of other historical monuments, suffered a lot during the Karabakh war from the Azerbaijani artillery bombing. When the Azerbaijani troops entered the monastery they destroyed the burial-vault of St. Grigoris. After a while the monastery was again reoccupied by the Armenians and later was reconstructed.
After subjecting Artsakh’s civilians to a humanitarian crisis, the adversary launched an attack on Artsakh on September 19th, eventually capturing the Amaras Monastery.
