Our Lady of Tortosa
Our Lady of Tortosa is a former Crusader Church and Cathedral of Tartus in Syria . It is considered to be the best preserved sacred building from the time of the Crusaders.
history
The cathedral was built on the site of a Byzantine pilgrimage site. This was an early Christian monastery consecrated to St. Mary . According to legend, this place is said to have been consecrated by the holy apostle Peter himself. The construction of the cathedral in the transitional style from Romanesque to Gothic in the place then known as Tortosa began in the second quarter of the 12th century. The Knights Templar , ruling the city from 1152 , completed the sacred building around the middle of the 13th century. After the city was repeatedly threatened by the Mameluks , the cathedral was also fortified. Tortosa eventually became the last Templar-held city in the Middle East. They finally had to bow to the overwhelming power and in 1291 they evacuated the city. The cathedral was then converted into a mosque. The minaret on the west facade still bears witness to this today . In Ottoman times it became a stable for horses. Today the former church houses the National Museum of Tartus.
literature
- Paul Deschamps: Romanesque in the Holy Land , Würzburg 1992, pp. 269–278.
- Boas, Adrian: Crusader archeology: the material culture of the Latin East , Routledge 1999, p. 52f./ p. 131f.
Web links
Coordinates: 34 ° 54 ' N , 35 ° 53' E