The Hanging Church is one of the oldest Coptic monuments, distinguished by its rare architectural style and the first papal seat in Cairo. It is one of the most beautiful churches in the Middle East, and some wonder why it was given this name, which is what Al-Watan reviews in the following lines.
Why is the Hanging Church called by this name?
Regarding the naming of the Hanging Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church explained on its official website that it is due to the fact that it was built on the ruins of two protrusions in the Roman fort; it is built in the basilica style, which is characterized by the presence of 3 altars. The Hanging Church continued as the official seat of the papal throne until the reign of Pope Youannis VIII, the 80th Patriarch (1300-1320), with the exception of short periods when some popes would resort to the Abu Sefein Church in Old Cairo and use it as an alternative rest stop.
The church was restored over 16 years at a cost of 101 million pounds.
The Hanging Church is located in the religious complex in Old Cairo, a few meters from the Mosque of Amr ibn al-Aas and the Babylon Fortress, next to the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the Abu Sefein Church, and south of the Coptic Museum. It is considered an architectural masterpiece that includes 13 giant columns symbolizing Jesus Christ and his twelve disciples. The church was restored over 16 years at a cost of 101 million pounds to address the effects of groundwater running beneath it. With the beginning of the Fatimid rule over Egypt and the founding of the city of Cairo, Pope Christodoulos, the 66th patriarch of the church, moved the papal headquarters to the Hanging Church to be the first papal headquarters for the patriarchs of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo. The famous English historian Alfred Butler (1850-1936) wrote about the Hanging Church, saying, “It is one of the oldest remaining churches in Egypt; the small church dates back to the third or fourth century AD, while the large church dates back to the sixth century AD.”
History of the Hanging Church
In some accounts, it is said that this church was built on the ruins of a place where the Holy Family (Hydra Mary, Christ, and Saint Joseph the Carpenter) hid for the three years they spent in Egypt, according to what is mentioned in the Bible, in order to escape from the rule of Herod, the ruler of Palestine, who had ordered the killing of children. Because of a prophecy that came to him, and other people say that it was the place of a cell where one of the monks lived in one of the rocky catacombs that were dug in this place. This church was renewed once in the Islamic era, once during the reign of Harun al-Rashid, when the Patriarch Bishop Mark asked the governor to do so. He gave him permission to renew it, and again during the Fatimid era of Al-Aziz Billah, who allowed Patriarch Ephrem the Syrian to renew all of Egypt’s synagogues, and a third time during the reign of Al-Zahir of Azzaz Din Allah. It was the headquarters of many patriarchs from the beginning of the nineteenth century, and Patriarch Christodoulos was the first one to create the Hanging Church. The residence of the Pope and I am buried there A number of patriarchs in the present and second centuries, and still to this day, have pictures and icons with candles on them, and the courts of priests, bishops, and heretics were used there as well. It is considered a very important shrine for Christians, and this is because it is historically ancient and because it is linked to the Holy Family.
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