The Armenian Church of the Holy Virgin, Latakia

The old Armenian church of Latakia belongs to the Armenian Orthodox community. Nobody knows exactly when it was built. Old stone plaques carved in Armenian above the main door carry the date 1254, which is thought to be the year of construction. It counts as one of three old churches in the city still in use; the other two are Saint Nicholas and the Greek Orthodox Church of Our Lady.

Getting there

The ground around the church was once monastery land called Hokedun, ‘the spiritual house’, a name later shortened to Kidon. When asking the way in the city, either the Armenian church or Kidon will do.

How long it takes

Twenty minutes. The main things to look at are the stones above the door and in the walls; seeing the interior depends on arriving when the door is open.

What to see

Start with the Armenian plaques above the door. Two more stones sit in the north-west wall: one reads 1380 in Arabic, the other 1183. These are the gravestones of people, perhaps priests, buried beside the church, so 1183 is not the church’s date. The building’s age also shows in its repairs. It was restored inside and out in 1721, decorated in 1845, and in 1874 Bishop Kyrios Melatios set out to rebuild it.

From monastery to school

In past centuries this was the monastery of Mar Yakub (Saint James), one of the houses of the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem. Families settled on the monastery land in one-room houses roofed with tin. The monastery later became the Saint James Armenian School, with a kindergarten and a primary section that taught Armenian, English and French alongside Arabic. In 1965 a special decree renamed it the Martyrs’ Private Primary School and allowed liturgical Armenian to be taught next to the full state curriculum.

Don’t miss

The difference between the 1254 plaque and the stone marked 1183. On the wall the older number catches the eye, but that stone marks a grave; the closest clue to the church’s own date is above the main door.