Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator (Baghdad)

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Armenian Apostolic Church of Saint Gregory the Illuminator in Baghdad, 2014

The Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator ( Armenian Սուրբ Գրիգոր Լուսավորիչ մայր եկեղեցի Surb Grigor Lussaworitsch mair jekeghetsi , Arabic كاتدرائية سورب كريكور لوسافوريتش) is a church in the Iraqi capital Baghdad that was consecrated in 1957. It is the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Baghdad of the Armenian Apostolic Church .

Location

The Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator is located in the al-Jadriya (al-Jadriya) district of Baghdad, about 800 m northeast of the banks of the Tigris at 39 m above sea level, about 100 m southeast of al-Tayran Square (ساحة الطيران, "Aviation Square") on the northeast side of the street al-Nidal (شارع النضال, "Street of Struggle"), about 500 m northeast of al-Tahrir Square (ساحة التحرير, "Liberation Square").

history

Baghdad has had an Armenian community for centuries , and as early as 1639 the city's old Armenian cathedral, also known as the Meskenta Church , the Church of Our Lady ( Surp Asdvadzadzin ), the oldest (although it was demolished in 1968 and then new) built) Church of Baghdad applies.

After the Armenian genocide , the Armenian population in Baghdad increased greatly due to refugees from what is now Turkey, and a larger main church was needed. The Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator was built between 1954 and 1957 on a large plot of land belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church , where a large Armenian cemetery has been located since 1904. The construction was made possible by extensive donations from two Armenian philanthropists, Simon M. Gharibian and Calouste Gulbenkian. In the course of the following decades, further buildings of the Armenian church were built on the site, including a school and a museum in November 1997.

The Armenian communities in Iraq benefited economically and culturally from the modernization measures of President Saddam Hussein , who suppressed Islamist forces and under whose government the Armenian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Nareg in Baghdad was consecrated in 1999 . Most of the Armenians were loyal to the government, which in return donated numerous flowers to the Baghdad Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator every Christmas .

architecture

The Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator is like most Armenian churches a geostete aligned so with her only apse to the east cruciform church with a pyramid-shaped dome with an octagonal floor plan and a drum with windows. In front of the entrance on the west side of the building is a three-story bell tower on which there is also a drum with a pyramid-shaped dome with an octagonal floor plan. There is a metal Armenian cross on each spire. The massive building of reinforced concrete is creamy-painted white and the lower area with ocher and beige stones blinded .

Diocese and bishop

The Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of Saint Gregory the Illuminator is the seat of the Diocese of Iraq of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The majority of the around 10,000 to 13,000 Armenians in Iraq around 2018 (around 25,000 before 2003) belong to it, around half of whom live in Baghdad. Archbishop Avak Asadourian (baptized Vazken), born in 1942, has been the prelate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Iraq since April 1980 .

Other facilities of the Armenian cathedral

The Armenian Apostolic Church maintains a school, an auditorium and a museum on the church premises with the cathedral and the cemetery, which was built in 1997. There are also two memorials to commemorate the Armenian genocide .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Pascal Meguesyan: The Armenian Apostolic Cathedral of Sourp Krikor Loussavoritch in Baghdad. Mesopotamia Heritage, March 2018.
  2. ↑ Old Churches and Monasteries: The Armenian Orthodox Church (Meskenta Church). Tourism in Iraq, accessed December 4, 2017.
  3. ↑ Florence Avakian: Iraq's Armenian Primate Visits US. The Armenian Mirror-Spectator, September 12, 2012.
  4. ↑ Old Churches and Monasteries, Baghdad. AtlasTours.Net, 2013.
  5. ↑ R. Hrair Dekmejian: The Armenian Diaspora , in: Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.): The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century. St. Martin's Press, New York 1997. p. 427.
  6. ^ The Armenian Church - Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. In: www.armenianchurch.org. Retrieved September 4, 2017 .

Coordinates: 33 ° 19 ′ 48.4 "  N , 44 ° 24 ′ 51.6"  E