What is the oldest church in Syria?

The candidates, and what each date means

The house church at Dura-Europos

Dura-Europos was a frontier city on the middle Euphrates, in today’s eastern Syria. Among the many discoveries made there is a Christian assembly house with a baptistery annexed to it, decorated with wall paintings of scenes from the Old Testament, such as Adam and Eve and David and Goliath. The Sasanians took the city around 250 and destroyed it in 256, after which it was abandoned. That end date is what makes the building so early: whatever its exact history, it was in use before the middle of the third century.

It answers a narrower question than most searchers mean. It was an ordinary house adapted for worship, not a building designed as a church, and it survives only as an excavated site. It is the reason Syria is often named in discussions of the oldest known church anywhere, and the same building is cited on this guide’s Jordan page for comparison.

Old churches still in use

In Homs, the church of Saint Elian stands near the Palmyra Gate. It was founded in 432 on the place venerated as the site of the death of Elian, a physician of Emesa martyred according to tradition in 284, and his feast on 6 February still draws pilgrims. Renovation in 1969–70 uncovered frescoes in the crypt that date from at least the twelfth century; many believe they are as old as the sixth. Also in Homs, the Syriac Orthodox cathedral of the Holy Belt holds that its site has been one of Christian worship since the year 59. The historian Joseph Nasrallah found a church of Mary in Homs attested as early as 478, and the building standing today dates from 1852.

The most impressive early church in Syria is Qalat Siman, north-west of Aleppo, built around the pillar of Simeon the Stylite, who died in 459. It was begun about 473 and completed about 490, four basilicas meeting at the pillar, and was the largest church of its time until Hagia Sophia; it is now a ruin. At Maaloula, the monastery of Mar Sarkis keeps elements of the fifth and sixth centuries, while Saidnaya’s founding by Justinian in 547 is a tradition, not a documented event.

Limits of this answer

“Oldest” depends on what is counted. A converted house, a purpose-built church, a site of worship and a building still in use are different things. Dura-Europos is the oldest by evidence but is a ruin and is not listed in this guide. The year 59 at the Holy Belt is the church’s own claim, recorded here as a claim; the earliest outside attestation is 478, and the present building is from 1852. Some dates, such as Saint Elian’s 432, come from the profile sources rather than from excavation reports. This guide documents 42 places in Syria, and fighting since 2011 damaged several of them.

Places mentioned

• Saint Mary Church of the Holy Belt · Syria · Show on map
• Church of Saint Elian · Syria · Show on map
• Church of Saint Simeon Stylites · Syria · Show on map
• Mar Sarkis Monastery · Syria · Show on map
• Our Lady of Saidnaya Patriarchal Monastery · Syria · Show on map
• Chapel of Saint Ananias · Syria · Show on map

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