Mar Assia al-Hakim Church

Syrian Catholic Church Mar Assia al-Hakim in Aleppo, 2010

Interior of the church, 2006

The church of Mar Assia al-Hakim , German Sankt-Assia-die-Weise-Kirche ( Arabic كنيسة مار آسيا الحكيم, DMG Kanīsat Mār Āsiyā al-Ḥakīm ), the former Cathedral of Our Lady of the Syrians , is a church building of the Syrian Catholic Church of Antioch in al-Judaide , the Christian quarter of the Syrian city of Aleppo . It lost its importance as a cathedral in 1970 with the opening of the new Cathedral of the Assumption in the center of Aleppo, and since September 2012 it has been closed due to war damage.

history

The Syrian Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Syrians in Judaide was built around 1500 in an area of Judaide also known as al-Saliba (الصليبة as-Saliba , fromالصليب as-Salib 'the cross') became known. The Italian traveling salesman Pietro della Valle mentioned the church along with four other churches in his report of his stays in Aleppo, most recently in 1625.

During the anti-Christian riots in Aleppo on October 17, 1850, in which around 20 Christians died, the church was badly damaged, but was later rebuilt.

The church served as Aleppo's Syrian Catholic Cathedral for a long time, but lost that status in 1970 when it became the Assumption Cathedral ( Arabic كاتدرائية سيدة الانتقال) was opened in the center of Aleppo. Over time, a large part of the Syrian Catholic community had migrated from al-Judaide to other parts of Aleppo. In the same year the church in al-Judaide was named after Saint Assia the Wise.

During the civil war in Syria , the Mar Assia al-Hakim church was damaged by fire on the vault and has therefore been closed since 2012. The church was still walled up in 2020 because there was not enough money to rebuild it.

The building

The Mar Assia al-Hakim church is 32 m long and 16 m wide. Its historic church tower dates from 1881.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b 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.
^ Ross Burns, Stefan Knost: The Judayda (“the little new”) Quarter, Introduction. Gerda Henkel Foundation , October 10, 2019.
^ ^A ^b Daniel Demeter: Aleppo - Syrian Catholic Church of Saint Asia al-Hakim. Syria Photo Guide, July 13, 2014.
↑ ^a ^b Alaaeddin Haddad, Issam Ballouz, Rami Alafandi, Rieffel York: Al-Judayda Churches, Rapid Damage Assessment. Gerda Henkel Foundation , October 10, 2019.
↑ 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.

36.20623 37.15621Coordinates: 36 ° 12 '22.4 " N , 37 ° 9' 22.4" E

[krimsti-1] 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.

[2] Ross Burns, Stefan Knost: The Judayda (“the little new”) Quarter, Introduction. Gerda Henkel Foundation , October 10, 2019.

[demeter-3] A ^b Daniel Demeter: Aleppo - Syrian Catholic Church of Saint Asia al-Hakim. Syria Photo Guide, July 13, 2014.

[ghs-4] Alaaeddin Haddad, Issam Ballouz, Rami Alafandi, Rieffel York: Al-Judayda Churches, Rapid Damage Assessment. Gerda Henkel Foundation , October 10, 2019.

[5] 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.