Narga Selassie is an

Orthodox Tewahedo {{Short description, Collective term for Oriental Orthodox Churches in Eritrea and Ethiopia Orthodox Tewahedo refers to two Oriental Orthodox Christian denominations with shared beliefs, liturgy, and history. The Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon i ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

on the western shores of

Dek Island Dek Island (Amharic language, Amharic: ደቅ ደሴት ''Däq Däset'') is the biggest island (approximately 16 square kilometers in size) on Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It is administratively included in the Bahir Dar Zuria woreda of the Mirab Gojja ...

, the largest island of

Lake Tana Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...

in northern

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The name signifies "Trinity of the Rest". "Rest" refers to the place and the shade thereabouts. The church was constructed by Empress

Mentewab Mentewab (Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ምንትዋብ; c. 1706 – 27 June 1773) was Empress of Ethiopia, consort of Emperor Bakaffa, mother of Iyasu II and grandmother of Iyoas I. She was also known officially by her baptismal name of Walatta Giyorgi ...

in the late 18th century, apparently using as construction material for doors and roof a gigantic

sycamore fig ''Ficus sycomorus'', called the sycamore fig or the fig-mulberry (because the leaves resemble those of the mulberry), sycamore, or sycomore, is a ficus, fig species that has been cultivated since ancient times. The term ''sycamore'' spelled wit ...

tree that stood at the centre of a slight elevation, now the centre of the church. Narga Selassie is fully decorated in the local style. A relief on the main entry portrays the Scottish explorer

James Bruce James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first Europ ...

, who visited the capital, Gondar, in the late 18th century. Narga Selassie was constructed in the classic round architectural tradition of the churches in the Lake Tana area, with the usage of stone both in the

peristylium In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=fou ...

around the church and in the compound walls. The church is accessed from the lake through a port constructed in 1987, which is connected to

Bahir Dar Bahir Dar ( amh, ባሕር ዳር, 3=sea shore) is the capital city of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Bahir Dar is one of the leading tourist destinations in Ethiopia, with a variety of attractions in the nearby Lake Tana and Blue Nile river. The ci ...

and

Gorgora Gorgora (Amharic: ጎርጎራ ''Gōrgōrā'', also, especially formerly, ጐርጐራ ''Gʷargʷarā'', modern pronunciation ''Gʷergʷerā'') is a town and peninsula in northwestern Ethiopia. It is located south of Gondar on the north shore of ...

by a state-owned ferry service. The access is in itself a beauty spot with a huge sycamore with long aerial roots descending to the lake and a door tower which forms part of the original construction.

References

* James Bruce, ''

Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 ''Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773'' is a multi-volume account by the Scottish traveller James Bruce (1730–94) of his journeys in the Horn of Africa, which includes an eye-witness ...

'' 18th-century Oriental Orthodox church buildings Churches in Ethiopia Lake Tana 18th-century churches in Ethiopia Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo church buildings {{Ethiopia-church-stub