Now in ruins, located at the edge of the city of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin) in Armavir Province, Zvartnots Cathedral (meaning "celestial angels") is a centrally planned aisled tetraconch type Armenian cathedral built by the order of CatholicosNerses the Builder between 643 and 652. Dedicated to St. Gregory, it was located the place where a meeting between King Trdat III and Gregory the Illuminator was supposed to have taken place. Following the Arab occupation of Dvin and the intensifying wars between the Byzantine and Arab armies on the former's eastern borders, Nerses transferred the patriarchal palace of the Catholicos from Dvin to Zvartnots.
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