The Church of Our Lady of Montligeon, Aleppo

A Maronite church in the Hamidiyah quarter, and its name does not belong to Aleppo: it comes from Montligeon, a village in the Orne department of France. This is the only Maronite building in the city outside the cathedral, which is to say Maronite Aleppo is not confined to Jdeideh.

Getting there

East of Jdeideh, inside Hamidiyah. It is close to a kilometre on foot east from Farhat Square, and since both belong to the same community it makes sense to see this church and the Maronite cathedral in sequence.

How long it takes

Twenty-five minutes. It is a single-hall parish church with no side rooms to walk through.

What to see

The story of the name is more interesting than the building. At Montligeon a priest named Paul Buguet had founded the Society of the Perpetual Mass, and its network reached Aleppo through the Maronite priest Michael Akhras. Akhras travelled to Europe in 1906, met Pope Pius X, visited the society’s seat in France and raised money there. He bought a plot in Hamidiyah, began building in 1908, and the church was consecrated on 1 October 1909. Youth clubs, schools, brotherhoods and scout troops gathered around it over time, so the building grew into a neighbourhood centre.

Don’t miss

Reading this church alongside the Maronite cathedral. The same Michael Akhras later became Maronite archbishop of Aleppo and had the cathedral dome rebuilt in concrete in 1914. Seeing the two in sequence means following twenty years of one man’s work.

How it stands now

The church was reconsecrated in 1998 after a restoration that took seven months. During the civil war it was hit by mortar fire, and the prayer hall and the wooden ceiling came down. Ask whether it is open before you go, because the state of the repairs changes from year to year.