| OshakanOshakan is a village in Aragatsotn, 8 kilometers southwest from Ashtarak. It is well known to historians and pilgrims of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
During the Arsacid Dynasty of the Kingdom of Armenia, it served as the main city of the province of Ayrarat and the capital of its Aragatsotn district from which the Amatuni noble family ruled. However, it is perhaps best known as the burial place of Saint Mesrob Mashtots: an Armenian monk, theologian, linguist and the creator of the Armenian alphabet.
Above his grave is a church rebuilt by Catholicos George IV in 1875. The church was covered with the icons in the 1960 by H.Minasyan. In the 1884 a bell two-story high, was sanctioned on the eastern side, an original undertaking in Armenian architecture.
There is information that Mesrop Mashtots established a school in Oshakan. Oshakan with its fruit-bearing gardens was one of the most famous villages of Armenia.
Just to the south of the town is Didikond Hill, where excavations have uncovered a fort of the 7th century to 5th century BCE, with five palaces. It consists of 40 rooms, halls and temples. During this time a lot of ornaments, instruments from stone and bone, decorations, idols and more than 100 memorials were found.
Just to the north of town is Saint Sion church dating from the 7th century, which is believed to mark the grave of Byzantine Emperor Mauricius, or his mother, as one historian claims he came from Oshakan.
There is a monument honor Mesrop Mashtots in the entrance to Oshakan. The monument looks like an opened book and there is Armenian alphabet on the left part of it.
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