have you a picture of a turkey egg?

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The Saints Poghos-Petros (or Boghos-Bedros) church (church of Saints Paul and Peter) is first mentioned in 1570. In the early decades of the nineteenth century this church was a small and semi-dilapidated chapel. In 1837 the Armenians of Tomarza erected in its place a magnificent new church built of stone. It stood in a location where the four main quarters of Tomarza converged.

In the centre of Tomarza, in the district of Cumhuriyet mahallesi, is a large, derelict Armenian church. It is almost certainly the Poghos-Petros church. There remains a small doubt about this identification because some old descriptions of the Poghos-Petros church do not seem to correspond with this building.

The church was used as a municipal warehouse during the 1990s, and photographs from that period show the floor covered with equipment, oil drums, scrap metal, and assorted junk. The interior is now completely empty.

Architectural Description
The church from the outside is a plain, rectangular structure, and is well built using large blocks of stone. Parts of the façade incorporate re-used Armenian gravestones.

The western end of the church is badly disfigured because of the total loss of its entrance narthex and the blocking of the exposed nave and side aisles using rubble masonry. A depiction of the destroyed narthex can be clearly seen. The side walls of the destroyed narthex were as high as those of the church, but its roof was lower and appears to have been flat or almost flat. The method in which the central nave was joined to the narthex is puzzling. There is no trace of a roof-line placed against the transverse arch of the nave, and the available space would seem to be too small for a conventional roof anyway. It may have been that an unorthodox method was used – perhaps panes of glass filled the arch opening, or the adjoining part of the narthex roof had a glass covering in the form of a roof light.

The interior of the church takes the form of a basilica. It has a nave that is flanked by side aisles and ends in a semicircular apse with a half-dome vault. Four arches supported by a row of three cylindrical columns separate the nave from the side aisles. The ceiling of the nave is divided into four bays. The easternmost bay is a barrel vault, the bay immediately to the west of it has a groin vault, and the two remaining bays also have barrel vaults.

The ceilings of the side aisles are also divided into four bays, each with a barrel vault. At the eastern end of the side aisles an arched opening leads into rectangular chambers that flank the apse. Although these chambers are now open to the aisles, a pre-1915 photograph shows them closed off, either with a wall or some sort of screen.

The apse has a raised chancel. The pre-1915 photograph shows that it once contained a high altar surmounted by an ornate altarpiece. Inside the apse are two small doorways that give access to narrow staircases. These staircases led up to rooms above the side chambers (the floors of these rooms have been removed and access is not possible). Each of the upper-floor rooms originally opened onto a small, pulpit-like balcony that looked out over the side aisles.

In the north and south walls is a row of four rectangular windows, now blocked up. They are positioned to be on the transverse axis of the internal bays. A second row of windows, this time circular, is positioned directly above the rectangular ones. They remain unblocked. The corner chambers were lit by a fifth rectangular window in the first row. There are no windows in the apse, but there are two circular clerestory windows above the vault of the apse. Similar circular windows light the north and south side aisles. At the top of the western end of the nave is a quatrefoil shaped window.

The Frescos
The church’s interior is covered with flamboyant and theatrical frescos done in vivid colors. These frescos are almost exclusively architectural in nature, with many trompe l’oeil effects using neo-classical and baroque motifs. There is very little overt religious iconography depicted in the frescos and they appear to have had no figurative representations. This is in marked contrast to the interior of the Surp Khatch church in Tomarza’s Surp Astvatsatsin monastery and most other Armenian Apostolic churches from this period.

The north and south walls are divided horizontally using a painted cornice from which hang purple drapery trimmed with yellow tassels. Above the cornice are rectangular panels. The columns have simple impost capitals with small volutes. Painted decoration has been applied to make them appear more elaborate: a band of acanthus leaves, then egg and dart mouldings, then a palmette frieze. Heavy scrollwork covers the undersides of the nave arches. At the apex of the barrel vaults of the nave and side aisles are roundels of acanthus leaves.

The groin-vaulted bay in the nave was probably meant to be a substitute for a dome. It is given emphasis by its more complicated roof and by having clerestory windows [see photograph 28]. The frescoes on the groin vault are particularly elaborate. There is a roundel of acanthus leaves at its apex, and in each segment of the vault are motifs set inside baroque-style circular frames. Those in the east and west frames are identical. In the middle of the frame is a golden chalice. It contains a circular or spherical object on which is inscribed a cross. Rays of light shine out from the circle. The chalice is flanked by pairs of books whose covers are emblazoned with an embossed cross. These probably represent the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, or the first four books of the New Testament. The north and south frames also contain identical subjects. An empty cross is depicted; on the head of the cross are the Armenian letters HITY. This is the Armenian equivalent of INRI, the four initial letters of the Latin words "Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum" (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews). Leaning against the cross are various items mentioned in the Crucifixion narrative, including a pole with the sponge soaked in wine and water, a ladder, and a spear.

Question by jim f: have you a picture of a turkey egg?
who has seen a turkey egg

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