Photo of Armenian Saint John Church in Iran named winner of Wiki Loves Monuments contest

Farzin Izaddoust Dar’s photo of the Armenian Saint John Church in Iran has been named the winner of the Wiki Loves Monuments photography contest.

“This image is superbly stunning,” one jury member said of this snapshot of Iran’s Saint John Church that won first place in this year’s competition, Wikimedia informs.

They continued: “The crystalline, geometric and pristine and jewel-like human-made forms of this church [look like they are] floating on a (snow covered) space-time continuum/gravitational field.”

Farzin Izaddoust Dar captured this timeless moment one day after a snowstorm came through and submitted it to Wiki Loves Monuments because they thought “everyone needed to see it.”

The Church of Saint John (Surb Hovhannes) is a 5th or 6th century Armenian Catholic church in Sohrol, Shabestar County, Iran. It was rebuilt in 1840 by Samson Makintsev (Sam Khan; member of Bogatyr Battalion) in brick on the older church foundation.

🇮🇷 And the winner of #WikiLovesMonuments 2020 is @Farzin_doust with this classic photo of the #Armenian Catholic St. John of Sohrol in #Iran. In harmony between nature and culture, the church seems to float on a snowy backdrop. https://t.co/sCL4auwMOQ@WLMIran @WikimediaIR pic.twitter.com/FRCjd6WVOf

— Wiki Loves Monuments (@wikimonuments) March 18, 2021

Eleven years since its founding, the world’s largest photography competition attracted over 230,000 stunning submissions from amateur and professional photographers alike for its 2020 edition.

Participants from around the world, representing 51 countries, shared beautiful monuments of cultural heritage on a platform accessed by millions— not just for recognition, but in the spirit of global collaboration.

As part of the competition, photographers donate their images to Wikimedia Commons, the free repository that holds most of the images used on Wikipedia, helping to document the world’s cultural wonders for generations to come.

Source: Public Radio of Armenia