The most beautiful religious buildings Homs

Place of worship dedicated to the life of the local saint, whose celebration is celebrated on 6 February. A unique son of a family of notables from Emesa to the Roman Emperor's balance, Eliân converted to Christianity. A decision that his father does not like. In the middle of the third century, followers of the new religion were persecuted. After attempting to fléchir his son's faith, the father must resolve to sacrifice him. Saint Eliân will be martyred in Homs in 285. The edict of Milan, 28 years later, was going to establish religious freedom through the empire. The worship of the saint could then burst into the great day. In 1970, during the restoration of the church (whose existence was not mentioned before the th century), a set of frescoes was discovered in what is considered a former martyrium. Some would be dated th or th century and would replace mosaics of the century. In the centre, Christ Pantocrator is surrounded by the right of the Virgin Mary and Marie-Madeleine, while on his left is Saint Jean Baptiste and an unidentified character. Four apostles are embedded in two niches: on the left, Luc and Jean and, on the right, Marc and Matthew. Finally, various medallions represent prophets and apostles. As a result of this discovery, the interior of the church was painted entirely by religious scenes with vivid colours. They were completed in 1973.

Today, the church is the former seat of the Syrian Catholic Patriarchate. The place would not be of any particular interest if, in July 1953, there was not a piece of cloth, below the altar, which passes to be a belt of the Virgin Mary. The keeper of the place will show you the belt, a piece of white cloth stuffed in a stone tank. It is 74 cm in length, 5 cm wide, 3 cm thick and is probably silk and linen. Its authenticity would be attested by the existence of a th century chapel under the present church. The whole lay under the altar, returning to this place by those who discovered it first, the men entrusted with the restoration of the church in 1852. The objects surrounding the belt at the time of its discovery are displayed in a church chapel: the stone tank in which the belt has been found, the copper disk which covers the tank and a metal cylinder containing a fragment of human bone with no great relation to the rest. On the details, very good brochure in English.

A Muslim sanctuary recognizable by its grey metal domes that reflect on the sun. Today, a very respected place of worship, it offers visitors an unusual spectacle: the crowd of the faithful carrying out his duty, pressed by the accelerated pace of urban life, mingled with young cireurs of shoes proposing a quick cleaning the time of prayer.

The glimpse of the mosque is confined to a part of the tomb, the prayer room hidden with the eyes of women. In 1908, the primitive mausoleum was demolished and rebuilt in Ottoman fashion. It passes to contain the tomb of Khaled ibn Al-Walid, the Arab conqueror of Syria. It was he who finally ended the Roman stranglehold on the country at the Battle of the Yarmouk in 636. He died in Medina. His wood cenotaph is exhibited at the Damascus National Museum (Room 2). The prayer room is square and surmounted by a dome. In front of the mosque, the old cemetery in the garden shows some antique pieces. The tomb of the protector of the city was an obligatory passage of processions which, until 1950, led the city. During seven consecutive Thursday and until the Orthodox Thursday of the Orthodox people, the city, devoted to the sacred spring, saw a parade of Sufi sheikhs followed by their followers preceded by the banner of Khaled ibn Al-Walid.

The Greater Homs Mosque. The building would be, if one sticks to the permanence of the location of places of worship, at the place of the former temple of the Sun, which was then converted to Saint John Cathedral. The site map would thus be the same as that of the Great Mosque in Damascus. An entrance allows you to access the prayer room by the souk. The central mihrab is decorated with a golden mosaic representing a vine. The courtyard is equipped with a stage with black and white tiles. The few blocks in which there are dates of previous places of worship. The mosque, like the whole old town, incorporates reuse materials. The square minaret, characteristic of homsiotes minarets, dates back to 980. C.C.