St. Sargis Vicarial Church

This guide to St. Sargis Vicarial Church in Yerevan sets up a trick built into the building itself: what looks like an old stone sanctuary is wrapped around a hidden structure only decades old. It follows architect Rafayel Israyelian's 1971 puzzle, how to raise the church's height and add a gallery without overloading walls rebuilt after the earthquake that leveled the site in 1679, and the concrete solution he devised while services kept running around him unnoticed. You'll hear how Israyelian died in 1973 before the work was done, and how Ardzroun Galikian carried it through to completion in 1976. Look up at the dome and trace where the old stone skin meets the frame holding it up.