Armenian Evangelical Church

Surviving 19th-century Armenian Protestant church in the city centre

The Ermeni Protestan Kilisesi is the most visible survival of the Armenian community that lived in the Elazığ/Harput region until the catastrophe of 1915. The handsome basilica-plan building, with round-arched windows and a small bell tower, was built around 1865 for an Armenian Evangelical congregation that numbered in the thousands.

It is not generally open as a church — services don't take place here any more — but the exterior is visible from Gazi Caddesi and the building's recent restoration has been more sensitive than many in the region.

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A story
The church was built in the 1860s, when Mamuretülaziz — modern Elazığ — had a substantial Armenian Protestant community. After the deportations of 1915 the congregation was gone; the building became a school, then a warehouse, and was abandoned for decades before a partial restoration.

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