This church was destroyed on 9/11. Now it’s reopening as a shrine to victims

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/this-church-was-destroyed-on-9-11-now-its-reopening-as-a-shrine-to-victims



St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church stood out amid the hustle and bustle of lower Manhattan.

The church started out in 1916 in a small row house that used to be a tavern. Over the years, the neighborhood around the church changed, from surrounding row houses to high rises. Developers attempted to acquire the property, but the church stayed put at 155 Cedar St., and became a familiar place for people who worked in the area. Eventually, the church, nowhere near as tall as the buildings nearby, stood alone, surrounded only by a parking lot.

“It was a little church on a lonely parking lot, and it was always open,” said the Rev. Alex Karloutsos, the vicar general of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. “People found it like an oasis.”

Because of lower Manhattan’s growth, the church was overshadowed for more than a quarter-century of its existence by two towering neighbors — the twin towers of the World Trade Center, which were built in the 1960s. That location also gave St. Nicholas an unwelcome place in history; when hijackers crashed planes into the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, the collapse of the buildings also destroyed the church. It was the only place of worship leveled by the attacks. Now, two decades later, the church is embarking on a resurrection of sorts. It will reopen not only as a functioning church for Orthodox Christians, but also as a shrine to those who died in the attacks. Most of the exterior of the new St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center will be finished for the anniversary on Saturday.