St. Nicholas National Monument Church at the World Trade Center

The building, which was occupied by the church, was built around 1832. In 1916, the Greek community of St. Nicholas was founded, in 1922 he bought the building and converted it into a temple. The building was complemented by a cross and a pommel with a bell, as well as crosses on the facade. The width of the building was only 7 m, depth - 17 m, height - 11 m. When the 110-story towers of the World Trade Center were built in 1972, the church became a completely invisible building against their background, inaccessible for believers. The community consisted of 70 families, led by priest John Romas. The church had particles of the relics of Nicholas of Myra , Catherine of Alexandria and Savva Serbsky , donated to the American Greeks by Nicholas II (the church appeared in this building after the death of the emperor). This church was called the “forgotten temple” - before the attack only the parishioners knew that at the foot of the grand towers there is a four-story white building, crowned with a dome and a cross ^[1] .

There was no one in the building during the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001 ; the small church was completely buried under the WTC South Tower. The only non-WTC building that was completely destroyed that day (two other non-WTC buildings were demolished due to severe damage). On the ruins, it was possible to find damaged icons of Dionysius of Zakynthos and Our Lady of the " Life-giving Spring ". The relics are lost.

The community and the priest went to the Greek Cathedral of Constantine and Elena in Brooklyn . The portion of the Ground Zero site where the church stood was sold in 2008 for $ 20 million to the service of the New York port.

The Greek American Archdiocese for many years sought the opportunity to build a new temple. Over the years, the restoration project for this church has developed slowly due to ongoing disputes between the Greek archbishopric of America and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The authorities wanted to use part of the land on Cedar Street , 155 ^[2] , where the original temple stood, for the construction of an underground parking lot, and the Church wanted to receive compensation for this land. After a four-month independent technical study, which, through the mediation of the state governor’s office, was agreed by the port authority and the Greek archbishopric, concluding that the temple could be built in the same place, on October 14, 2011 the port authority of New York and New Jersey and the Greek archbishopric of Constantinople Patriarchate in the United States signed an agreement on the reconstruction of the Church of St. Nicholas ^[3] .

And the American archbishopric itself also had disagreements about the future temple: Archbishop Demetrius (Trakatellis) stated that he did not present the future project as a parish church, but only as a monument church , while the small but active local parish did not agree with this and requested permission to participate in the control of the project ^[1] .

Proposals were received from 13 architects. According to Archbishop Demetrius (Trakatellis), their building designs should have looked “truly churchly and at the same time modern and in harmony with the new shopping center” ^[1] . The selection committee unanimously chose the project of the world-famous architect Santiago Calatrava , according to which the new church was to repeat the interior and exterior decoration of the Church of St. Sophia in Constantinople.

It was originally planned to place the church in Brooklyn , but the Governor of New York insisted on preserving the original location of the church (the temple was located next to the South Tower of the World Trade Center). The church was given the new name National Church of St. Nicholas , it will also serve as a memorial church for the September 11 tragedy. Since initially the restructuring of the St. Nicholas Church was not included in the development plan of the WTC memorial complex, now it will be located on the concrete building of the World Trade Center Security Complex, and due to bright lighting at night it will be the central element of the WTC memorial complex, adjacent to Freedom Park , also located on the roof of the security complex.

On October 14, 2014, the consecration of the future site of construction by the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archbishopric was completed. On August 28, 2015, the first concrete was poured. In early September, the installation of the basement of the church began, which will have a round shape. Construction was supposed to be completed in two years ^[1] .

• The site of the Church of St. Nicholas there is also a large number of media materials about the future church