Saint Mary Church: Garden City’s Modernist Sanctuary

Verticality is perhaps the most symbolic feature of religious buildings; it compels you to look up during moments of worship and leads you to marvel at the ceilings that crown their designs. In Saint Mary Church in Cairo’s Garden City, the ceiling is a reflection of the capital’s modernist transformation.

Built between 1973 and 1976, the Coptic Orthodox church features a revolutionary element: it has no columns limiting your view when you enter its nave. Instead you get an open space covered by a folding ceiling and minimal, if any, ornaments.

On first look, the design feels like it’s exercising pure form. The ceiling sets a beautiful tone to the space; it’s awe-inspiring, massive in scale and honest in the fact that it connects worshippers to the structure they’re in.

The religious paintings found within St. Mary’s Church were completed between 1987 and 1999, but none are on the ceiling - which would have been a common feature for a church in Cairo. The church’s architecture was deliberately chosen to convey that it’s part of the modern world, and - what was then believed to be - a new era for Egypt.

Photography Credit: Andrew Shenouda