page_title: Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral (Alexandria)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral (Alexandria) / History
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Fassade der koptisch-orthodoxen St.-Markus-Kathedrale, Alexandria, Ägypten English: Façade the Coptic orthodox Cathedral of St. Mark, Alexandria, Egypt
context_page_description: Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral is a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt. It is the historical seat of the Pope of Alexandria, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
  On Palm Sunday, 9 April 2017, an Islamic State operative detonated his suicide belt in the cathedral, killing 17 people and wounding 48.
context_section_description: In AD 311, before the martyrdom of Pope Peter the Last of Martyrs, he prayed a last prayer on the grave of Saint Mark, the church was then a little chapel on the eastern coast, and it contained bodies said to be of Saint Mark and some of his holy successors.  The church was later enlarged in the days of Pope Achillas, the 18th Pope.
  The church was greatly ruined in 641 when the Arabs invaded Egypt.  In 680 Pope John III rebuilt the church.  In 828, the body of Saint Mark was stolen by Italian sailors and was taken from Alexandria to Venice in Italy. However, Saint Mark's head remained in Alexandria.
  The church was destroyed again in 1219, during the time of the crusades, then it was rebuilt once more. Sixteenth-century French explorer Pierre Belon mentions the founding of the church in 1547.
  The church was pulled down during the French invasion of Alexandria in July 1798.  The church was rebuilt and opened in 1819 by Pope Peter El Gawly in the time of Mohammed Ali Pasha. The church was renewed in the time of Pope Demetrius II and by the supervision of Bishop Marcos of El Behira in 1870. Between the years 1950–1952, in the time of Pope Yusab II, the church building was pulled down and another, larger  building was built with reinforced concrete after the basilique style. The six marble pillars were transferred into the outer entrance of the church. The icon carrier was accurately cut into parts, each part given a number, and then it was cautiously returned to where it was originally. The two bell tower  were not pulled down as they were reinforced with concrete and were decorated with beautiful Coptic engravings. Two new bells – brought from Italy – were provided, one for each bell tower.
  Between 1985 and 1990, the church was widened from the western side after the former style with great accuracy, keeping the two bell tower in their places, so the entire area of the church was doubled. The six pillars were transferred to the new western entrance of the church supervised by Pope Shenouda III.
caption: Facade of the cathedral.
exif: {}