Coptic Church,The hanging church or (El Muallaqa) in old cairo(part three)
9/06/2014 04:00:00 PM
Hello
everybody, in the past Week we were in The hanging church and reached the History of the church so in this article we are going to complete
our tour
So
lets start with
The little church
Within the church's southern aisle is
a small door of fine pine wood inlaid with ivory. This leads to the
"little church", actually a chapel, which represents the oldest
section of the structure.
To the left is the chapel of Teckle
Haimanout (Takla Haymanot), a national Saint of Ethiopia, who lived during the
13th century.
The Pulpit of the Church:
The pulpit is one of the most
magnificent unique ancient masterpieces in the church.
It is situated against the first
column on the north side of the central nave of the principle church.
It may be dates back to 13th
century. According to Butler this ambon is Arab in character and possible not
older than the 12th century.
It stands or rests on fifteen fine marble columns, of various
shapes and inlaid with mosaics.
two of these
are attached to the body of the ambon and they represent St. Mark and
St. Luke the evangelists, who were not among apostles.
As to the other thirteen
columns, the first to the front represents Jesus the Christ and the other
twelve represent the apostles.
It is noticed that every two adjacent
columns are similar because Jesus the Christ had sent the apostles every two
together.
Underneath the ambon there are the
relics of St. Abraam Ibn Zaraah.
The southern marble facade of the
pulpit's steps is carved with a design showing a cross inside a shell and a
cross on stairs, representing the Resurrection of Christ.
The cross is depicted above three steps
symbolizing the three days during which Jesus Christ was in his tomb and his
resurrection.
To the east, there are the three
sanctuaries or three haikals ( the central for virgin Mary, south John the
Baptist, the north mar Girges) .
They are separately covered with high roofs in
the shape of a wooden truss. In front of the sanctuaries there are three wooden
iconostasis composed of small panels inlaid with ivory and ebony
The sanctuary screen:
In front of the three sanctuaries
located to the east of the nave, (The central one is dedicated to the Virgin
Mary, the northern (left) to Saint George, and the southern (right) one to
Saint John the Baptist) there are three wooden screens inlaid with ivory and
ebony ornamented with floral and geometric motifs.
The central screen dates
from the 12th or 13th century and on the
top of it is a row of seven large icons.
The center of these icons depicts the
Christ, seated on a throne. To his right is the Virgin Mary, the Archangel
Gabriel and Saint Peter, while to his left are John the Baptist, the Archangel
Michael and Saint Paul.
Within this sanctuary, the altar is surmounted by a canopy supported by four columns.
Within this sanctuary, the altar is surmounted by a canopy supported by four columns.
The left screen has a design of
squares with crosses in alternate ivory and ebony, surmounted by 17 icons
depicting scenes from the martyrdom of St. George.
The right screen dates from the 13th century and has a cruciform pattern.
The right screen dates from the 13th century and has a cruciform pattern.
Across the top are seven small
icons representing the life of St. John the Baptist. All the icons on these
screens are the work of a single Armenian artist, Orhan Karabedian, and date
from 1777.
Here we
finish the first part of our tour and we hope you enjoyed reading it so wait
the next article to go into a new tour Next Week at 4:00 pm (Cairo time
zone +2)
and now If
You enjoyed it
please
1- share it
with your friends
and if you
want to get news , updates and our gifts
please
1- subscribe
by your Email
2- follow us
by facebook
and we
welcome your comments and suggestions
Good luck
0 التعليقات