Armenian Orthodox Church of the Mother of God

[Picture source: © 1975 Jean-Claude David]

A first reference to this church is found on the margins of a manuscript in the possession of library of the Armenian Archdiocese of Aleppo dated 1429 and would provide us with a terminus ante quem for the existence of a church (Fig. 5).[1] Ghazzi tells us that a rich member of the Armenian community named Qujah Maqsud had the church constructed at his expense in 1455.[2] It was restored in 1535 and later, after the new Maronite cathedral was inaugurated on Farhat Square, it was enlarged at the expense of the old Maronite church immediately to the north, which by that point housed the Maronite print house.

The church is significantly smaller than the Cathedral of the Forty Martyrs; the building’s roof rests on four columns of yellow limestone and inside are three elevated apses on the eastern side. Like  the Cathedral of the Forty Martyrs, the church housed a number of important icons.[3] Since 1991 it serves as the Zarehian Treasury Museum, displaying Armenian sacred vessels and vestments.

Figure 5: Armenian Orthodox Church of the Mother of God, entrance [Picture source: © 2009 Stefan Knost]