Tuff and Felzit


Short definition of tuff

Tuff is a rock made of volcanic ash that was consolidated by the action of rains. It is often likened to tufa, which is a limestone rock resulting from so-called petrifying springs or rivers in which heavy vegetation accelerates the limestone deposits.

Formed after the great tectonic shifts, tuff is not very old, merely 90,000 years!

Often white or yellow, tuff also shows highly varied colors according to the elements it contains. Armenian tuff is renowned for its variety of color: blacks, browns, oranges, pinks, violets and more.

Since it is both hard and lightweight, tuff has been used in architecture since ancient times. Thus Rome was originally surrounded by a protective wall made of tuff. In Italy it is also known as lithoid tuff (tufo or tuffo litoido).

Tuff in history and throughout the world

The historian Livy (59 BCE-17CE) in his 142 volume history of Rome calls tuff "the squared rock" (saxum quadratum). The foundation of the Capitol and also the road from the Capena Gate to the Temple of Mars are paved with saxum quadratum.

The moai, the giant statues of Easter Island , the oldest of which date from the 5th century BCE, are sculpted from tuff. The tallest measures over 60 feet long (it lies flat) and weighs over 300 tons. Some are topped by crowns or head-dresses of red tuff, the largest weighing 27 tons.

And then in Cappadocia, in Anatolia (present day Turkey), which was part of Lesser Armenia, underground cities accommodating up to 30,000 people were built in the tuff itself. Such cities were built as protection from barbarian invasion.

One can also point to the very old "sassi di matera " in the south of Italy , where one sees stunning houses carved right out of tuff. Houses in Pompeii were built with tuff bricks. And there is Yerevan , the capital of Armenia , known as "the pink city" for its concentration of tuff buildings of that hue.

Armenian churches and monasteries

Armenia was the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as the official religion, after Gregory the Illuminator had cured and then converted King Tiridatus in 304. There followed a period of tearing down temples and putting up churches and chapels. Here are a few of the more famous ones:

- Khor Virap (Deep Pit) Monastery lies at the foot of Mount Ararat . Built in the 17th century over the reptile-infested pit into which Gregory the Illuminator had been cast in the 2nd century and where he would spend 13 years. He emerged from it thanks to the sister of King Tiridatus IV, for she saw in a dream that Gregory could save her brother from the madness into which he had fallen.

- The cathedral of Echmiadzin, which means "The Only Son has descended", was built at the wish of St. Gregory the Illuminator after he had a vision. The cathedral has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt in the wake of invasions.  The present construction dates from the 17th century.
Holy Echmiadzin is the residence of Catholicos Karekin II, the spiritual head of the Apostolic Armenian Church. Ninety percent of the population belongs to this Church.
The Cathedral and Churches of Echmiadzin are listed as World Heritage properties by UNESCO on account of "the spirituality and spirit of artistic innovation which have been features of the Armenian Church since its founding" and its "profound influence on church design, over a vast region."

- The Geghard (or Gherart) Monastery, whose construction began in the 7th and 8th centuries and was completed in the 13th, is formed partly from caves. A natural spring flows inside the church.
Its UNESCO World Heritage listing says: "The monastery of Geghard, with its remarkable rock-cut churches and tombs, is an exceptionally well preserved and complete example of medieval Armenian monastic architecture and decorative art."
See the UNESCO site at http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/am/


Some more notable churches and monasteries:

In 2001 Armenia celebrated the 1700th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity as the official religion. The Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator, built in the heart of the Armenian capital of Yerevan, was consecrated for this celebration on Sunday, September 23, 2001 with representatives of Orthodox churches and celebrities and visitors from around the world in attendance.
Pope John Paul II was there to commemorate the event. For the occasion, Charles Aznavour sang an Ave Maria before the Holy Father inside the Armenian Genocide Memorial.  The Pope capped his three-day visit by celebrating an outdoor mass in Echmiadzin.

Khachkars

Khachkars (literally, stone crosses) are unique to Armenia . They are stones (almost always of tuff) sculpted with a cross and ornamentation. They are generally used as tombstones or to celebrate some great event. The decorative work around the cross represents the tree of life, the symbol of resurrection. Sometimes khachkars tell a story: with the apostles, vines or musical instruments, or else are purely decorative.

An example we have in France is a khachkar of red-ochre tuff that stands before the National Ceramic Museum in Sèvres as a memorial to the 1.5 million Armenian victims of the genocide of 1915, as well as to those Armenians who died for France .

For more information, in French, see the ACAM site (several other headings there are very interesting) http://www.acam-france.org/armenie/architecture-ancienne/khatchkar.htm or the one for the Apostolic Armenian Church http://www.eglise-armenienne.com/Arts/Khatchkars.htm


A khachkar in Garni, next to the only remaining pagan temple in Armenia. About the upper cross are, at the top, the faces of St. Paul and St. Peter and below them, kneeling, St. Thaddeus (St. Jude) and St. Bartholomew, the two apostles who spread in the gospel in Armenia in the first century.

Extracting and working with tuff

Tuff is a hard, rather light and easily carved material. It holds up well and hardens with time, which is why since antiquity it has often been used for retaining walls, columns and cornerstones.

It is obtained from underground or, more frequently, open-air quarries. It is possible to shape blocks of truly great size.  Quarrying consists of cutting out stone blocks in intact, homogeneous rectangular solids. These blocks are then re-cut into more manageable stones. Generally, rough stones are produced which are then hewn and sculpted with sledgehammers, hammers, gouges, saws, sanders, polishers and the like. In Armenia the great variety in colors of tuff corresponds to the various regions.

Another product of volcanoes is felzit, formed when acidic lava cools down slowly. Surprisingly, the rock is crystalline.  In fact the crystals are too small to be seen by the naked eye, and so felzit looks to be completely opaque.

It often has a rough appearance, though sometimes smooth, and is lightly colored. In some cases, successive strata of different colors make patterns in the stone. These are known as "flow bands."