Gagik I

Date of birth unknown; died 1020. In 990 he became king of the Ani Kingdom in the dynasty of the Bagratids. He carried on the unification of Armenian territory and the centralization of power. He suppressed the Tashir-Dzoraget king’s opposition to centralized rule, annexed the Vayots-Dzor principality and the Khachen region to his own possessions, and took the regions of Kogovit and Tsakhkotn away from the Vaspurakan Kingdom. Under his rule the capital of Ani became an important trading, handicraft, and cultural center; a cathedral, a three-story round church modeled after the seventh-century Zvartnots Church, and other buildings were constructed in Ani. Stone carving and wood carving reached a high level of development.