The Cathedral of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Aleppo

It stands in Sulaymaniyah and is the seat of the Syriac Orthodox metropolitan of Aleppo and its dependencies. The cathedral opened in 1926, which makes it young among the Christian buildings of the city, and there is a concrete reason for that: the community entered the 20th century in Aleppo without a church of its own.

Getting there

It lies along Sulaymaniyah Street. The Chaldean Cathedral of Saint Joseph and the Martyrs’ Church are in the same quarter, within walking distance. The building is visible from the main street, though trees in front hide part of the façade.

How long it takes

Half an hour. The interior takes one circuit and most of that time goes under the dome.

What to see

The Syriac Orthodox once had a small church with its own garden in Jdeideh, and Pietro Della Valle describes it beside the courtyard of four churches. In the 18th century, under the pressure of European missions, most Syriac Orthodox in Aleppo went over to the Catholic side, the bishop and most of the priests among them. The Orthodox metropolitanate was dissolved and those who remained were attached to Damascus. After the massacres at Diyarbakir in 1895, migrants arriving from Diyarbakir, Mardin and Urfa rebuilt the community, and new church projects began. A member of the congregation donated a plot in Sulaymaniyah in 1924; the altar was built a year later and the cathedral opened in 1926. The dome and the belfry were added in the enlargement of 1965. Metropolitan Yuhanna Ibrahim had the building restored in 1983 and enlarged again in 1995, with new altars and tombs and marble facing on the walls.

Don’t miss

The inside of the dome. Old oil panels cover the surface and you will not notice them unless you look up. Small shrines around the cathedral hold icons of the Aleppine school, and the collection also includes old Syriac liturgical manuscripts.

How it stands now

The cathedral is in use for services and remains the seat of the metropolitan. The feast of Mar Ephrem falls on the first Sunday after Great Lent, and the church is full that day. The Church of Mar Girgis in the Old Syriac Quarter belongs to the same metropolitanate, so the two quarters are two ends of one congregation.