Saint Sophia Cathedral, Washington, D.C., United States

Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral was founded as a church in 1904 to serve the Greek Orthodox residents of the District of Columbia. In 1962, the church was elevated to a cathedral. The building is in the Neo-Byzantine style with a central dome that reaches 24m in height.

The congregation met in temporary quarters for several years, prior to the construction of its own church near 8th and L Streets NW which was dedicated in 1924. This site is currently occupied by the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Construction on the current edifice at 2815 36th Street NW, near Massachusetts Avenue and a short distance from the Washington National Cathedral, began in 1951. The congregation began worshipping there in 1955 shortly after major construction was completed. Although the building has been in use for over fifty years, the interior decoration is incomplete. Work began on the interior in 1965 and continues to the present.

References:

Wikipedia

User Reviews

ByAsa Photography (3 months ago)
Beautiful church, perfect spot for a wedding!

Michael Kaloudis (4 months ago)
The sun was shining through this amazing stained glass and it created such a lovely warm glow inside the cathedral during my Nephew's wedding ceremony.

b tuckered (8 months ago)
Gorgeous cathedral! Incredible Priest! Thoroughly enjoyed the wedding ceremony we attended there.

Paul G (8 months ago)
Review strictly for the Greek festival which has gone downhill. Lines so absurdly long, food is overpriced, and they stopped doing the lamb on the spit which is very annoying and the food just is very poor now. Basically an overpriced church fundraiser - not worth going

Tyrick McLeish (11 months ago)
Wonderful Orthodox Cathedral. Gorgeous architecture and stained glass. The people are just as wonderful to be around, everyone greets you and you feel like family within a few minutes. The Father is also great along with all of the clergy. I only wish they would remove some of the pews and only have seating around the perimeter of the nave so we could do prostrations more easily like at Saint Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral across the street, but overall, fantastic!

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Zvonimir Hrvoj

Historic Site of the week

Church of St Donatus

The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.

The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.

The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.

Saint Sophia Cathedral

Address

Details

More Information

Rating

Interesting Sites Nearby

User Reviews

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Finest Norman castles in Italy

Exploring the History of Northern Poland

Discovering Slovenia's Historic Wonders

Historic Site of the week

Church of St Donatus