Coptic church,The hanging church or (El Muallaqa Chuech) at old cairo(Part One)
8/23/2014 04:00:00 PM
Hello everybody, today we are going into a tour in one of the most amazing Coptic monuments
and it's
The hanging church or (El Muallaqa) in Arabic
but firstly we want to know the importance of this church and they are as follow:
1-The hanging church enjoys
a great importance because it is probably the first church to be constructed on the basilican style.
2- Under the patriarchate of Christodoulus (1047-1077), The church gained great importance as it became the official residence of the Coptic patriarchs of Alexandria and Coptic synods were held in the church.
3-It also became a center for a consecration and election ceremony of the patriarchs of Alexandria that once took place in The church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus(called the church of Abu Serga and We talked about this church before)
4-It was also the burial place of several patriarchs of the 11th and 12th century.
So now we recognize that we are before an important site which was a witness on many important events which took place in the Coptic Church
So let's know more about
Names of the church
The Hanging Church (in Arabic El Muallaqa) derives its name from its location on top of the southern tower gate of the old Babylon fortress in Old Cairo with its nave suspended over a passage.
(its eastern and western end rest on the south and south west bastions of the fortress.
In the Coptic manuscripts it is called
“the church of saint Mary mother of the god at Babylon in Egypt”
The European Travelers have called it The Church of the Column or the (Church of The Staircase) because the church is approached by a staircase consisting of 29 steps.
It is also called the church of the column because there is a column in the southeast side is made of black basalt which refers to Judeus Iscariot
Location of the church
The hanging church is located on the south of Cairo (old Cairo) facing the underground station of mari gerges
The Hanging Church is entered through a richly ornamented gate on Shar'a Mari Girgis Street.
This leads into an open courtyard, then climbing 29 steps to the church narthex.
At the top of the stairs are three wooden doors decorated with geometric patterns, framed with decorative carvings in the stone wall.
The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is thus also known as Sitt Mariam or St. Mary's Church.
Here we finish the first part of our tour and we hope you enjoyed reading it so wait the next article to complete our tour Next Week at 4:00 pm
(Cairo time zone +2)
(Cairo time zone +2)
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