Ani: Once Upon a Time

There once was a city named Ani.

It was located near today’s border between Turkey and Armenia.

Owen Matthews writes that in its best days, located “at the crossroads of empires made Ani as large and as wealthy as Venice.”

Its population reached 100,000, perhaps more. Ani was known as the “City of 1,001 Churches.”

But no one lives in Ani anymore. Wars, sieges, looting, fires and earthquakes have taken their toll.

Matthews writes, “I don’t believe in ghosts. But maybe I believe in the spirit of a place. And in Ani, and all over ancient Armenia . . . there’s something missing. There’s a feeling that the place has been abandoned by history, and by the people who made the place’s history.”

Some impressive – yet empty – structures (such as the cathedral of Ani, with its pointed arches and clustered piers) still stand where people once dwelled.

Once, Ani was like many, if not most cities, “a crossroads, a meeting point, a place of equal footing.” Is it possible that “this corner of the world could start to become a crossroads again, instead of a lonely dead end”?

The work of building community, of reviving or maintaining a “spirit of place” never stops. It is incumbent on the people who occupy the place.

Click to read Owen Matthews’ entire article: Haunted by History, Newsweek, September 14, 2009, p.67.