NEW YORK (AP) — More than two decades after a small Greek Orthodox church in lower Manhattan was destroyed by the collapse of the World Trade Center’s south tower, that church’s much larger replacement opened to the public this week in an elevated park overlooking the reconstructed building. mall memorial plaza.
The new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine held its first liturgical service on Tuesday to commemorate the Feast of St. Nicholas and is gearing up to welcome visitors of all faiths who wish to remember the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. September 2001..
“Today is a day of joy for the United States and for New York,” said Michael Psaros, president of the Friends of St. Nicholas, the fundraising group for the church. “We invite all of America to come visit us, to come to the cenotaph that was created and built in memory of 3,000 people who were martyred and killed on 9/11.”
The completion of the project, one of the last pieces of the newly built World Trade Center complex, once seemed in doubt.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center, battled in court over where the new church would be built before agreeing to Liberty Park, just south of the main site of the trade center. .
A groundbreaking ceremony was held in 2014, but construction was halted in 2017 when the archdiocese fell behind on payments.
Work resumed in 2020 with the goal of opening St. Nicholas in time for the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2021 terrorist attacks. That goal was not fully met, although the church was ceremonially lit. to mark the anniversary last year.
But on Tuesday, icons depicting the heroes of 9/11, as well as Christ and saints, watched a service conducted primarily in New Testament Greek.
“This is the resurrection of St. Nicholas Church,” said Olga Pavlakos, vice president of the parish council and a third-generation member of the St. Nicholas community.
Another parishioner from a family that attended the old San Nicolás, María Yatrakis, said she had tears in her eyes when she entered the new church. “To see it like this again, to see it so close to the Statue of Liberty, which represents all the immigrants who helped make this church, is very moving for all of us,” said Ella Yatrakis.
The church where Greek immigrants met a century ago was a converted tavern that was eventually eclipsed by the office buildings that grew up around it. The new church was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava in the style of historic Byzantine structures, including the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, with a central dome flanked by towers.
The church is covered in marble of the same Pentelic vein from Greece where the Parthenon stones were quarried, and at night its dome, through the translucent marble panels, shines like a beacon.
The iconography inside was painted by a monk from the Xenophontos Monastery on Mount Athos, Greece, known as Father Loukas. The Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, a former vicar general for the archdiocese and a key player in rebuilding the church from the start, said Father Loukas was asked not only to create traditional icons, but to “show the reality of 9/11.” .
In a panel depicting the day of the attacks, ships sail to rescue people fleeing the destruction as the twin towers burn. In another, Christ greets first responders, including police officers and firefighters, at the Resurrection.
“This is the first icon you will see in the Orthodox tradition that includes contemporary scenes of the Resurrection,” Karloutsos said. “We have never done that before in any Orthodox church in the world.”
The price tag for St. Nicholas after years of cost overruns is about $95 million, Karloutsos said.
Calatrava, who also designed the train hub known as the Oculus at the commerce center, said he has visited St. Nicholas often as it neared completion, though he was not at Tuesday’s ceremony.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be there,” Calatrava said from his office in Zurich. “I think it became a very beautiful piece. I am very proud.”
Calatrava says that when he has visited San Nicolás with friends, “they tell me that it is a jewel. And I think it’s a bit like that. It’s a small but very significant thing in this particular place in New York overlooking the monument as part of the whole rebuilding of lower Manhattan.”
