Şurud


Şurud is a village and municipality in the Julfa Rayon of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. It is located 23 km in the north from the district center, on the slope of the high mountain range. Its population is busy with farming and animal husbandry. There are secondary school, club, library, communication branch, and a medical center in the village. It has a population of 180.

History

Shurut was a small Armenian town during the late medieval period, with churches, schools, monasteries, scriptoriums, and a population of several tens of thousands.
In the 1980s there were four Armenian churches still standing in Shurut: the St. Stephanos and the St. Grigor Lusavorich churches, an isolated church known as Kusanants or St. Astvatsatsin, and the village's main church called St. Hakob-Hayrapet. The St. Hakob-Hayrapet church was located in the middle of Shurut. It was from the 12th century, but partly rebuilt in the 17th century. It was one of the most impressive churches in the Nakhchivan region: a massive structure with a basilica plan and a tall dome with a polygonal drum. All of the Shurut churches were demolished shortly before 2005.