Situated 20 km away from Yerevan, the ancient town of Echmiadzin is the spiritual and administrative center of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the residence of the Catholicos of All Armenians and the place, where chrism is consecrated for christening every Armenian child. At present the Catholicos of All Armenians is His Holiness Garegin the 2nd.
The name is translated as "the place where the Only Begotten Son of God descended".



The town (then called Vagharshapat) was founded in the first half of the II century. Starting 163 AD, after destruction of Artashat by the Romans, it was declared the new capital of ancient Armenia becoming its cultural, political and religious (since 1441) center for several centuries. The stones of Mother See of Echmiadzin are the contemporaries of the fall of Rome and Byzantium, witnesses of the adoption of Christianity in Armenia, coronation of many Armenian kings and so on..