Vintage Garni Temple Decorative Plate, Home and 50 similar items

Vintage Garni Temple Decorative Plate, Home Decorative Décor, Armenian Hanging Plate Décor, Souvenir Plate Antique vintage decorative plate in Melchior gold tone color made in Armenia in the Soviet era 1980s or even early in the 1970s with Garni, the pagan temple in overall good condition with sign of wear. The Temple of Garni is the only standing Greco-Roman colonnaded building in Armenia and the former Soviet Union. An Ionic temple located in the village of Garni, Armenia, it is the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. The structure was probably built by king Tiridates I in the first century AD as a temple to the sun god Mihr. After Armenia's conversion to Christianity in the early fourth century, it was converted into a royal summer house of Khosrovidukht, the sister of Tiridates III. According to some scholars it was not a temple but a tomb and thus survived the universal destruction of pagan structures. It collapsed in a 1679 earthquake. Renewed interest in the 19th century led to excavations at the site in early and mid-20th century and its eventual reconstruction between 1969 and 1975. It is one of the main tourist attractions in Armenia and the central shrine of Armenian neopaganism. Diameter 28.5cm – 11.22in Weight 419gr