St. Stepanos Church

Postcard 1907

38,422 27,129Coordinates: 38 ° 25 '19.2 " N , 27 ° 7' 44.4" E

St. Stepanos Church

The St. Stepanos Church ( Armenian Սուրբ Ստեփանոս Եկեղեցի Surb Stepanos Yekeghetsi ) was an Armenian Apostolic Church , which the city of Smyrna (now in Basmane District Izmir ) in Turkey was.

It was the most important and famous Armenian church in the city until it was destroyed by the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922. The building served the Armenian community together with the Surp Mesrop Private School for Boys and the Surp Hripsime School for Girls as the city's main institution. The schools affiliated with the Church were also in the Basmane district. The building of the St. Stepanos Church dates from the 14th century, after which the church was rebuilt and renovated several times. After a fire, the badly damaged church was reconstructed in 1858. The church was in a built-up area in the Basmane district of Izmir and had an adjoining cemetery. It was surrounded by a high wall.

St. Stepanos Church was a basilica with a dome. The front of the temple portico was spacious and the church gate had bronze door panels with large reliefs, one of which depicts the protomartyr Saint Stephen .

Fire and destruction

During the Great Fire of Smyrna, more than a thousand local Armenians, along with some Greeks, barricaded in the church to seek protection from the massacres by Turkish troops. It is estimated that there were about 8,000 civilians in the church, including 2,000 children. Turkish troops tried to destroy the walls with mortar fire . Eventually most of the civilians were saved by the intervention of the Metropolitan Bishop of Ephesus . He informed the local Catholic bishop who was taking the civilians to the Levantine quarter of the city. However, many civilians were beaten up by the Turkish troops on the way there, and others were deported to concentration camps.

After the evacuation, the church was looted by Turkish troops and set on fire.

Web links

St. Stepanos Church on akunq.net (Armenian)
St. Stepanos Church at the Armenian Genocide Museum
Report on St. Stepanos Church on levantine.plus.com ( Memento from March 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Ευαγγελία Μπουμπουγιατζή: Οι Διωγμοί των Ελλήνων της Ιωνίας 1914-1922. University of Western Macedonia , 2009, pp. 394–395 , accessed June 23, 2013 (Greek).
↑ Nikolaos Kartsonakis: H Aρμενιά και οι Mεγάλες Tαβέρνες. el, accessed June 14, 2014 .
↑ Marjorie Housepian Dobkin: Smyrna 1922: the destruction of a city . Newmark Press, New York, NY 1998, ISBN 978-0-9667451-0-8 , pp. 134 .
^ John Murat: The Infamy of a Great Betrayal . Boarding school Press, Athens 1997, ISBN 978-0-9600356-7-0 , pp. 139 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[Boubougiatzi-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Ευαγγελία Μπουμπουγιατζή: Οι Διωγμοί των Ελλήνων της Ιωνίας 1914-1922. University of Western Macedonia , 2009, pp. 394–395 , accessed June 23, 2013 (Greek).

[2] Nikolaos Kartsonakis: H Aρμενιά και οι Mεγάλες Tαβέρνες. el, accessed June 14, 2014 .

[3] Marjorie Housepian Dobkin: Smyrna 1922: the destruction of a city . Newmark Press, New York, NY 1998, ISBN 978-0-9667451-0-8 , pp. 134 .

[4] John Murat: The Infamy of a Great Betrayal . Boarding school Press, Athens 1997, ISBN 978-0-9600356-7-0 , pp. 139 ( limited preview in Google Book search).