St. Bartholomew, ora pro nobis!

The Saint Bartholomew Monastery (Armenian: Սուրբ Բարթողոմէօս Վանք) is a 13th-18th century Armenian monastery built in what was then the Vaspurakan Province of Greater Armenia, now near the town of Başkale (Albayrak) in the Van Province of southeastern Turkey. It was formerly considered one of the most important pilgrimage sites of the Armenian people.

The monastery was built on the traditional site of the martyrdom of the Apostle Bartholomew who is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century. Along with Saint Thaddeus, Saint Bartholomew is considered the patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

At an unknown date after the Armenian Genocide, the monastery came under the control of the Turkish military and its entire site now lies within an army base. The dome of its church was still intact in the early 1960s, but the whole structure is now heavily ruined.

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