The establishment of the Haghpat Monastery situated to the north-east of Sanahin dates back to the X century. The local monks in the Haghpat Monastery devoted themselves to the Word of God. They studied theology, humanities and fine arts.

During the XI-XII cc the monks tried to turn the monastery into a repository of everything written in Armenian thus making it the first Matendaran. In search of manuscripts the monks wandered the mountains, dug in the book-depositories under the dusty vaults of monasteries from Van to Urmia and copied everything that was impossible to move. And during the hard times when they heard rumors about the invasions of Turan or Mongol hordes they gathered their works, ran away to the mountains and hid the thin parchment papers in the caves.

There are evident similarities between the characteristic features of the Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries. The architectural details and the decors of both monasteries belonging to the same era have a lot in common and allow us to suppose their performance by the masters of the same school. At the end of the 18th century prominent ashugh (folk singer-songwriter) Sayat-Nova lived in this monastery.