The Mansion on the Hill

During the massacres many Armenian homes were taken by Turkish families or destroyed. I met Professor Khatchatur Pilikian whose parents survived the massacres to discuss a painting of his from 1957 called ‘The Mansion on the Hill’. 

One hundred years ago in the historical Armenian village of Khaskal atop a small hill stood a tall, three storey house. Supported by wooden stilts and with traditional long Armenian windows it was built in 1912 by master-builder Hovanhess Pilikian with the help of his ten year-old son, Israel-Vahan.

Two years later the home was seized by an officer of the Central Powers and turned into an army barracks whilst the Pilikian family were sent on the death marches through the Syrian desert.

Hovanhess died during these marches but in 1919, Israel decided to return to his childhood home. After several months however he fled again due to fear of the nationalist uprising but not before getting a photograph of the mansion.

37 years later a young Khatchatur listened to his father’s story and took it upon himself to turn the photograph into a painting which now stands proudly in his London home.

In 1963 Israel travelled with his five children to Khaskal once more to see what had become of his childhood home. It was gone. Burnt to the ground during the nationalist uprisings according to locals. But the painting, and the story of the ‘Mansion on the Hill’, remains.