Dura-Europos church

34.74582940.727958Koordinaten: 34 ° 45 'N, 40 ° 44'

The house church of Dura Europos is the oldest known archaeologically proven church. It dates to 232/233 AD and was at Dura Europos on the Euphrates. The ancient city in the east of Syria belonged to the Roman province of Syria Coele.

Consisting of mud brick house, which housed the Church has probably served as a normal residential house about 200 years. It consisted of a peristyle in the center, with the living quarters of it. To 232/233, the house was rebuilt (the date is known from an inscription in the plaster ). In this conversion, two living rooms of the house were combined to form a 13 × 5 m large hall. On the east side of the room stood a pedestal, perhaps served as the seat for the bishop. In the year 241 ( as an elapsed in the screed coin) was converted into a baptistery ( baptistry ) is another room of the house. Here, a stone basin found with a canopy. In this room are also numerous murals, including Adam and Eve were the tree of knowledge, a sheep carrier in his flock, David and Goliath and the women at the empty grave of Christ. The paintings were relatively well preserved in their discovery. They are executed in the Parthian style, being significantly lower than those available in terms of quality of the synagogue of Dura Europos, implying that the Christian community of the city was not as financially strong as the Jewish community by far.

The paintings have been preserved, as you aufschüttete the walled city of Dura Europos in 256 and so the surrounding houses were filled with sand. After its partial entry into the Yale University they have experienced severe damage due to improper storage.

The ruins of the oldest church building made ​​of stone blocks, built in the early 4th century through the conversion of a residential building, located in the northwest of Syria in Qirqbize. In the nearby village Fafertin was the oldest, as such planned church building, which dated inscriptions in the year 372.