CHURCH BUILDING
Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows (Umm al-Ahzan)
Baghdad · Agd al-Nasara · Chaldean Catholic
- Locality
- Baghdad · Agd al-Nasara
- Tradition
- Chaldean Catholic
- Type of place
- CHURCH BUILDING
- Coordinates
- 33.33818° N, 44.39537° E
Identity checked:
History: Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows (Umm al-Ahzan)
Umm al-Ahzan, the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, is the old Chaldean Catholic cathedral of Baghdad. A first church was built in 1843 for the growing Chaldean community of the Shorja area. Because the Tigris flooded it, the floor was raised five metres in 1889, and the enlarged church, able to seat about 2,000 people, was consecrated in 1898. It remained the seat of the Chaldean Patriarchate until the new Cathedral of Saint Joseph opened in Karrada in 1956, and it was restored in 2015.
An interesting detail
Polish soldiers helped to craft its high altar during the Second World War, and its marble pillars and arches were brought from Mosul by way of the Tigris.