St. George Church (Aleppo)
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The Church of Saint George ( Arabic كنيسة القديس جاورجيوس) is a church of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church in the Syrian city of Aleppo from 1969. It is one of the largest churches in Aleppo and is located in the Sulaymaniya district.
Location
The church is in Sulaymaniya barely 100 m southeast of the al-Tawhid mosque (مسجد التوحيد), around 120 m south of the Chalil al-Hindawi Road (شارع خليل الهنداوي, DMG Šāriʿ Ḫalīl-al-Hindāwi ).
history
With the Tanzimat reforms, the Ottoman Empire recognized the Melkite Greek Catholic Church as a separate body from 1830 , and the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II allowed new churches to be built. In the years from 1834 to 1843, the Melkites built near the church district as-Saliba (الصليبة) in the district of al-Judaide in the center of Aleppo her Passage of Mary's Cathedral , and nearby was built in 1836 near the neighborhood of Sharasoo (الشرعسوس or حي الشرعسوس) Another Melkite church, the Church of St. George.
The church was enlarged in 1849, but shortly afterwards destroyed in the anti-Christian riots in Aleppo in 1850. Reconstruction began in 1852. An associated St. George school was also built, which was considered one of the most modern Aleppo. At the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman forces occupied the building and converted it into a military barracks. After protests by the population, the military gave the Melkite Christians back their Georgskirche. According to tradition, the fact that the Turkish soldiers heard the pounding of horses on the church roof played a role. They complained to the Melkite bishop, who told them that Saint George was disturbed by their presence and was therefore riding over the roof. Because of this, the soldiers left the church the next day. In the 1960s, the church leadership found that there were fewer and fewer Melkite Christians in the city center, but more and more in the Sulaymaniya district. Therefore the Melkite Church in Sulaymaniya bought a new church property near the Baghdad train station. The foundation stone for the new Saint George Church was laid in 1960, and it opened in March 1969. The old church was abandoned by the community and a tailor's workshop was established here . In addition, it remained a tourist destination.
architecture
The church, built in 1969 from solid concrete, has an almost square floor plan, in the middle a very large, eye-catching dome with a cross and at each of its four corners a small dome, also with a cross. The apse is on the east side, the main entrance with its three large, round arched arches in the west, where on the facade above there is a loggia with nine smaller arches and in turn a round image of George the Dragon Slayer above .
The old church was, as is common in Ottoman times, hidden in an alley. The facade with the altar faced east, while its main entrance was in the north. The icons were in a marble holder.
Individual evidence
- ↑ (Archimandrite) Ignatius Dick (أغناطيوس ديك): الطوائف المسيحيّة في حلب: 1- الروم الكاثوليك [Christian denominations in Aleppo: 1. Catholics]. Terezia.com, accessed June 20, 2020.
- ↑ كنيسة القديس جاورجيوس . [Church of Saint George], al-Bishara, accessed June 20, 2020.
- ↑ a b Bilal al-Hamdo (بلال الحمدو): كنيسة القديس "جاورجيوس" ... فن العمارة الشرقي. [Saint George Church - Eastern Architecture]. ESyria, January 31, 2012.
Coordinates: 36 ° 12 ′ 47.9 ″ N , 37 ° 9 ′ 16.2 ″ E