Old SymbolsWhere every symbol began

Plate 1 A cross whose four arms each end in a pair of outward-curling leaves, standing on a rosette, with a leafy tendril springing from each side of its foot

Armenian cross (khachkar)

The cross as the Armenian Apostolic Church carves it, its arms ending in curling leaves. On the khachkars, Armenia’s carved cross-stones, it stands on a rosette and sprouts leaves and tendrils: the cross as the tree of life.

Christian symbols. Also called Armenian apostolic cross, armenian cross meaning, Armenian cross-stone, blossoming cross, cross-stone, khachkar, khachkars, khatchkar.

Meaning

Khachkar means “cross-stone”: the Walters Art Museum gives k’ar for “stone” and khach for “cross”. UNESCO, which added the craft to its list of humanity’s intangible heritage in 2010, describes outdoor stone slabs up to 1.5 metres tall with an ornamentally carved cross in the middle, resting on the symbol of a sun or wheel of eternity, among plant and geometric ornament, saints and animals. More than 50,000 stand in Armenia, and no two are alike. The Smithsonian calls them unique to Armenia and now a national symbol. The Armenian Apostolic Church calls the Armenians a khachagir, or “cross-bearing”, nation, and its Eastern Diocese in America writes that the cross appears on the domes and walls of its churches, on altars, in homes and, as khachkars, rising out of the Armenian landscape.

Origin and history

The Armenians recognised Christianity as their state religion at the beginning of the fourth century, and in the Middle Ages they set up khachkars as memorials to the dead and to mark where important events took place, the Metropolitan Museum of Art writes. The khachkar itself is first seen in the ninth century, and where it came from is still argued, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage says. Many scholars trace it to the four-sided stone stelae with engraved crosses raised after the conversion; others think it began as a folk form of venerating the cross, which the church took up and developed into an elaborate art. That art lasted until the late eighteenth century. After a gap of nearly 200 years a memorial in the form of a khachkar was raised at Ejmiatzin in 1965, and carvers revived the tradition in the early 1970s.

Why the cross blossoms

On an Armenian cross-stone the cross is alive. The Walters Art Museum, describing a khachkar from Siunia in southeastern Armenia, notes arms that end in fleurons and a flourishing tendril round the cross, and says that here the cross is not the instrument of Christ’s death but stands for eternal life: it takes on the meaning of the tree of life. The Smithsonian says the same of the sprouting and blooming motifs, and adds that the cross is carved on the face turned west, so that people face it as they would a rising sun. The church puts it in its own words: “The cross for us is the instrument of life: a divine sign that shows the power of life over death.”

How a khachkar is made and blessed

UNESCO records the craft step by step. Carvers work local stone with chisel, die, sharp pens and hammers, grind the carving with fine sand, fill breaks with clay or lime plaster, and paint it. The finished stone is set up in a short religious ceremony; once blessed and anointed, it is believed to have holy powers and to give help, protection, victory, long life, remembrance and mediation for the salvation of the soul. The skill passes down in families or from master to apprentice, and the Smithsonian notes a small group of women carvers among them.

A cross on the heads of the evangelists

Some khachkars carry figures as well as foliage. On a stone from northern Armenia, carved shortly before the Mongols took the region early in the thirteenth century and lent to the Met by the History Museum of Armenia, a monumental cross inside an interlace frame rests on the heads of the four evangelists, the authors of the Gospels.

The cross in the Armenian year

Autumn is the season of the cross in the Armenian Church. Its chief feast, Khachverats, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, is one of the church’s five major feasts and falls on the Sunday nearest 14 September, the day other churches keep. The processional cross is adorned with basil, a sign of royalty, and the four corners of the church are blessed for the whole world. The words the church credits to St James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, as he lifted the cross, “We bow before thy cross, O Christ”, are still used in the liturgy. Two weeks later comes a feast unique to the Armenians, the Holy Cross of Varak, for a relic of the cross found in Armenian soil at the Monastery of Varak. Children of both sexes are given a cross at baptism, and names such as Khachig and Khachadoor come from the word for cross. An old saying runs: “Let the Holy Cross be my support.”

See also

Orthodox cross, Chi-Rho, Skull and crossbones, Ichthys, INRI, Latin cross.

Sources

  1. Armenian cross-stones art. Symbolism and craftsmanship of Khachkars, Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, inscribed 2010, UNESCO, Description
  2. Khachkar, Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2018, Armenia: Creating Home, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
  3. Khachkar (Stone Cross), collection record; special loan of the History Museum of Armenia (Internet Archive copy, June 2026), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Description
  4. Khatchkar, 27.608, collection record (Internet Archive copy, August 2022), The Walters Art Museum, Description
  5. Exaltation of the Cross, Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
  6. Season of the Cross, Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research

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