Tavush Fortress / Tslik Amram's Fortress

Armenia, Armenia

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Tavush Fortress, commonly also called Tslik Amram’s Fortress, is a large medieval fortress on a steep hill on the outskirts of the town of Berd in the Tavush Province of Armenia, on the right bank of the Tavush River.

The fortress is first mentioned in written sources in the early 10th century, when it served as the residence of governors under King Ashot II Yerkat, especially the rebellious ruler Tslik (or Tsilick) Amram, an association that later gave the site its popular secondary name even though historical records do not confirm that Amram ever owned it.

In the 10th and 11th centuries the fortress belonged to the Kyurikian branch of the Bagratuni dynasty, and in the 12th–13th centuries it came under the control of the Zakarian (Zakarid) princes, before being abandoned and gradually falling into ruin by the end of the 14th century. The complex originally consisted of a high citadel on a rocky summit and a lower fortress descending the eastern slope, with thick cyclopean walls, remnants of a single‑nave church, a 12th‑century church at the foot of the hill, and a sophisticated water‑supply system that used clay pipes and tunnels to bring water from nearby sources.

Partial excavations were carried out in the 1980s, but the site remains mostly unexplored and difficult to enter fully, and today visitors can see extensive ruins of walls, towers, and building fragments covered by vegetation and soil. The fortress is best known locally for its dramatic hilltop position and for the legend linked to Tslik Amram and King Ashot Yerkat, and the town of Berd itself is said to have taken its name from this fortress.