Al Muallaqah (Hanging church), Cairo

    

      Hanging church (Al Muallaqah) الكنيسة المعلقة is one of the oldest and famous churches in Egypt. It`s situated in the area of Old Cairo (Msr Kadeema). The original name of church is “St. Virgin Mary”, but its popular as “Hanging” as it was built above a passage with an old Roman fortress.

Originally the main corpus of the church is believed to be founded in 3 century, after that the church was rebuild in 7^th century, in its original appearance. To the main entrance are leading 29 steps.

     The gate of “Al Muallaqah” is from the street “Shera Mary Gergis”, where visitors come inside splendid courtyard, decorated with mosaic art on the sides. There is a small garden with palms and plants. This church is remarkable for its marble pulpit and 13 marble pillars, representing Jesus and his disciples. Don’t be surprised – one of these columns is always black in the tradition of Coptic architecture, as it represents Judas and his betrayal. Another column is grey color, as symbol of the doubts of Thomas.

   Many old icons in the church date back to 8^th century. Some historical artifacts in the holy place are kept in the Coptic museum as treasures of the time and Coptic art.

In the eastern part of the church there are three altars, dedicated to St. Virgin Mary (center), St. George and St. John the Baptist. The material of these altars forms amazing art of figures, geometric compositions and crosses. It`s made of ebony with inlaid with ivory.

The walls and gates of the church are impressive with architecture styles and art of paintings and carvings. All the icons are made by the well known at the time Armenian artist, Orhan Karabedian from 1777.

More interesting facts about the church ~

… it has wooden roof in the shape of Noa`s ark

… from 11 century serves as residence of Coptic Patriarch

… 15 icons depict the life of St. George

… 7 icons are dedicated to life of St. John the Baptist

… The oldest icon represents Virgin Mary, Jesus and John the Baptist and dates back to 8^th century 

Hanging church, Old Cairo (7th century) view of courtyard 

Mural with mosaic on the outer wall of Hanging church, depicting Joseph leading Virgin Mary with little Jesus on a white donkey. The color of donkey is symbol of bringing the worlds peace, as well as the white doves flying above. On the background you can see the lovely blue mosaic of river Nile and Pyramids in the upper left corner. 

Wooden carved wall with ancient icons of Jesus, Virgin Mary, St. George, Archangel Gabriel

Old icon depicting Nativity, birth of Jesus (from the site www.coptic-cairo.com) 

outer gate leading to the street "Shera Mary Gergis" 

nina. .nour *