The new cathedral also marks the 20th anniversary of Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos serving as head of the Orthodox Church in Albania
TIRANA, June 25 – Albania’s Orthodox community, representing around 20 percent of the country’s population, now has new church in downtown Tirana. Named the “Resurrection of Christ,” the new Cathedral is situated close to the old cathedral demolished by the communist regime in 1967, when Albania banned religion becoming the first atheist state. The new cathedral also marks the 20th anniversary of Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos serving as head of the Orthodox Church in Albania.
The church has a surface of 1660 m2 and is 29 metres tall. Its construction took eight years.
“The new cathedral in Tirana is one of the most important architectural constructions built over the past twenty years, not only for the Orthodox Church, but also for entire Albania. It was built near the central square of the Albanian capital in a historical region,” says Leonidas Pappas, the mechanical engineer who undertook the project.
Numerous officials of the Albanian government, including President Bamir Topi, and representatives of the nation’s other religious communities attending the inauguration ceremony.
His Eminence, Archbishop Nikon of Boston and New England and the Albanian Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America, participated in the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the reestablishment of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania.
The highlight of the celebration took place on Sunday, June 24, the Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, with the consecration of the recently completed Resurrection of Christ Cathedral in Tirana. According to the web site of the Orthodox Church of Albania, it was on this feast that His Beatitude, Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania was elected the Church’s first primate in decades. “This yearŠcelebrates the finalization of one of Archbishop Anastasios’ greatest dreamsŠthe construction of the Orthodox cathedral in the center of the capital city,” reads a release on the site.
Thousands of faithful gathered outside of the cathedral for the Service of the Opening of the Doors.
