St. Stepanos Church (Yukhari Aylis)
church building in Ordubad District, Azerbaijan
St. Stepanos Church was an Armenian church located on the slope of a hill in the northwestern Verin Get district of Yukhari Aylis village of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.
History
The church was most probably built in the 12th or 13th century and was rebuilt in the 17th century and in 1845.
Architectural characteristics
The church was built with basalt and reddish-pink colored stones, it was a basilica-style structure with a four-sided dome and a cross-like roof. In the eastern part of the church, on both sides of the main altar, there were quite large and semicircular altars. The church had three entrances, which were located on the southern, western and eastern sides. The domed basilica had three apses facing a main hall, and under the apses were vestries that could be accessed from their bemas. The cupola rested on four cruciform pillars. There were Armenian inscriptions on the southern facade and decorative sculptures around the entrances and windows.
Destruction
The church was still a standing monument in the 1980s.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “St. Stepanos Church (Yukhari Aylis)” is church building in Ordubad District, Azerbaijan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Stepanos, Church and Yukhari, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “church building in Ordubad District, Azerbaijan” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4505111. Authority coordinates are 38.967, 45.985. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1845.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow St. Stepanos Church (Yukhari Aylis) primary sources, St. Stepanos Church (Yukhari Aylis) archive and Stepanos research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “St. Stepanos Church (Yukhari Aylis)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.