The Latin Church of Latakia

A limestone church on Baghdad Street, facing the port: two three-storey towers under tiled spires, and between them a gable with a rose window. Its official name is the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but in Latakia everyone calls it the Latin Church. The Franciscans run the compound, and with its garden, large hall and playing fields it is the biggest monastery inside the city.

Getting there

The church stands on Baghdad Street opposite the port, in the Saliba quarter. Before the harbour was filled in, it looked straight out to sea. The towers are visible from well down the street, so there is little need to ask the way.

How long it takes

Half an hour. The façade takes a few minutes from the opposite pavement; if the doors are open, the wide hall with its statues and paintings fills the rest.

What to see

The building is cut limestone under a pitched, tiled roof. The towers either side of the entrance rise three storeys, and the windows, doors and carved details follow the European Gothic taste of the time. The sanctuary lies directly opposite the entrance. Inside is a very wide hall with small multi-purpose rooms around it, and the walls carry statues, paintings and decoration. Beside the church, behind the same railing, a plainer stone building with a pediment belongs to the same compound.

The church’s history

The Franciscans reached Latakia around 1733, and the first parish priest, Father Dominic Maroyati, took up the post in 1734. A small monastery and the old church were built in 1829. The present church was designed by the Italian architect Arrigoni and his wife Evdokia, and Bishop Frediano Giannini consecrated it on 19 March 1933. Two schools, one for boys and one for girls, opened beside it. Sources disagree on what happened next. One account says Syrian Franciscans bought the large school after the French withdrew in 1946 and ran it until 1967; another says the schools passed to the state in the 1950s. Both schools later closed. About 90 priests have served here, and today the Franciscans also look after the Syriac Catholic and Armenian Catholic communities.

Don’t miss

The towers as someone arriving by sea would have seen them. According to an account published by eSyria, before the harbour was filled in these Gothic towers were the first thing people approaching Latakia from the water could pick out. Cross to the port side of the street and step back a little, and both towers and the gable come into view together.