St. Elias Cathedral (Aleppo)
| Saint Elias Cathedral كاتدرائية القدّيِس الياس |
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.jpg) The cathedral at night |
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| Construction year: | 1873 |
| Location: | 36 ° 12 '25.6 " N , 37 ° 9' 20.9" E |
| Location: |
al-Judaide Aleppo , Syria |
| Purpose: | Maronite Cathedral |
The Saint Elias Cathedral ( Arabic كاتدرائية القدّيِس الياس) is an Eastern Catholic ( Maronite ) church in the Syrian city of Aleppo , which is located in the Christian quarter of al-Judaide (Jdeydeh). It is named after Elijah the Prophet . The church was built on Farhat Square until 1873 to replace an older Maronite church and was restored in 1914. After severe war damage in 2012, it is currently being rebuilt.
background
Before the current building was built, there was a small Maronite church from the 15th century, which today serves as a church printing house. The old church was mentioned by the Italian traveling salesman Pietro Della Valle , who toured Aleppo in 1625 and described it as one of four churches each built in an adjoining square with a gate - in the new Christian quarter of Jdeydeh. The other three churches are the Armenian Forty Martyrs Cathedral , the Armenian Holy Mother of God Church (now the Zarehian Treasury ), and the Greek Orthodox Church of the Dormition of Our Lady . This area of al-Judaide was also called al-Saliba (الصليبة as-Saliba , fromالصليب as-Salib 'the cross').
The new building of the cathedral in Farhat Square was completed in 1873. It has two magnificent bell towers on its facade, while the marble entrance with yellow columns is under the high dome on the east side.
In 1914, during the tenure of Archbishop Michael Achras, the cathedral was completely renovated. For this purpose, during the reconstruction process, Aleppo concrete was used for the first time in history, with the assistance of experts from Belgium . At the same time, the tower clock, which plays Ave Maria every fifteen minutes , was placed on the tower.
In front of the main gate a statue of the archbishop and poet Germanos Farhat (1670–1732) was erected in 1932 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death and his efforts in founding the Maronite library of Aleppo, home to ancient, valuable manuscripts . Since then, the area around the cathedral has been called Farhat Square.
In August 2012, the cathedral was damaged during the events of the Battle of Aleppo , causing the wooden roof to collapse. It was still a construction site in March 2020; its destroyed roof was not restored until the end of 2019.
Churches of the same name in Aleppo
The Cathedral of Saint Elias should not be confused with the Greek Orthodox Prophet Elias Cathedral in the center of Aleppo.
gallery
Cathedral by day
The statue of Saint Elias in the church grounds
The statue of Archbishop Germanos Farhat
The church on Farhat Street
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Web links
- Saint Elias Church on Archnet ( Memento from December 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Alaaeddin Haddad, Issam Ballouz, Rami Alafandi, Rieffel York: Al-Judayda Churches, Rapid Damage Assessment. Gerda Henkel Foundation , October 10, 2019.
- ^ Ross Burns, Stefan Knost: The Judayda (“the little new”) Quarter, Introduction. Gerda Henkel Foundation , October 10, 2019.
- ↑ Feras Krimsti: The 1850 Uprising in Aleppo. Reconsidering the Explanatory Power of Sectarian Argumentation. In: Ulrike Freitag, Nelida Fuccaro, Claudia Ghrawi, Nora Lafi (Eds.): Urban Violence in the Middle East: Changing Cityscapes in the Transition from Empire to Nation State. Berghahn Books, New York / Oxford 2015, pp. 141–163, here p. 149.
- ↑ Mar Elias Cathedral (كاتدرائية مار الياس, in Arabic). Qenshrin.com to http://www.alepposuryoye.com (editor of the encyclopedia of churches and monasteries)
- ↑ Living on in the Syrian rubble field. While hundreds of thousands of Syrians are on the run in the province of Idlib, the government-controlled areas are in dire straits. A local inspection of the Christian community in Aleppo. Wiener Zeitung , March 13, 2020.