Harichavank is located in the village of Harich in Shirak Province, on the northern slope of Mount Aragats.
Monastic life at Harich flourished in the 13th century, when the Zakarian princes bought the village of Harich and the surrounding lands and began building the main church, Surb Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God). Its completion is linked to the name of Amirspasalar (commander-in-chief) Zakare, as recorded in the church’s building inscription. The church’s architecture is based on the domed-hall layout.
The church has colonnaded galleries that give the building a palace-like appearance.
The monastery was damaged during the 1795 invasion of Armenia by Ara Mahtesi Khan, and only after the end of the Russo-Turkish war in 1830 did the migration bring new life to it, through the care of the abbot, Archbishop Stepanos Khasavanyan, leader of the elders of Karin.
The oldest building of the complex is the Church of St. Grigor, dating to the 7th century. In its layout it resembles the Church of St. Hovhannes in Mastara. Side chambers were later built against the church on its southeast and southwest.
On the southwestern side of the monastery stood a small chapel built in the 12th–13th centuries. Because it was built on the edge of the gorge’s cliff, over time a large rock broke away from the cliff, slowly slid away and carried the chapel with it.
In the cemetery outside the monastery, the ruins of the Church of St. Harutyun (Resurrection), built in 1201–1216, have survived.
