The Church of Saint Andrew is an

Anglican church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

. Consecrated in 1905, the church is within the Archdeaconry of Gibraltar. The building is constructed in a

Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...

architectural style.

History

In 1880,

Hassan I of Morocco ''Mawlay'' Hassan bin Mohammed (), known as Hassan I (), born in 1836 in Fez, Morocco, Fes and died on 9 June 1894 in Tadla, was the sultan of Morocco from 12 September 1873 to 7 June 1894, as a ruler of the 'Alawi dynasty. He was proclaimed sul ...

donated land to the British community in order to build a small Anglican church in Tangier. The resulting church was soon found to have insufficient capacity for the increasing number of

worshipper Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity or God. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition of a God. An act of worship may be performed individually, in an informal or formal group, ...

s, and a new building was constructed in 1894 which became the Church of Saint Andrew. It was consecrated in 1905. The interior is designed as a fusion of numerous styles, notably

. The belltower, shaped like a

minaret A minaret is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generally used to project the Muslim call to prayer (''adhan'') from a muezzin, but they also served as landmarks and symbols of Islam's presence. They can h ...

, overlooks the adjacent cemetery.

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

's 1913 painting '' Landscape Viewed from a Window'' depicts the church. The church has a number of memorial plaques, including one to commemorate Emily Keene, (1849–1944), Sherifa of Wazzan, who introduced the

cholera vaccine A cholera vaccine is a vaccine that is effective at reducing the risk of contracting cholera. The recommended cholera vaccines are administered orally to elicit local immune responses in the gut, where the intestinal cells produce antibodies ...

. She was a British humanitarian who married the Shareef of Ouazzane, a local religious leader. She died in Tangier and there is a plaque in the western side of the church to commemorate her - her actual grave is in the Wazzan family burial ground in the Marshan district of Tangier overlooking the

Strait of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Europe from Africa. The two continents are separated by 7.7 nautical miles (14.2 kilometers, 8.9 miles) at its narrowest point. Fe ...

. Another memorial commemorates Thomas Kirby-Green, one of the members of the Great Escape who was executed on recapture. Administratively, the church is in the Archdeaconry of Gibraltar.

Notable burials

The churchyard holds the graves of a number of notable people: *

Christopher Gibbs Christopher Henry Gibbs (29 July 1938 – 28 July 2018) was a British antiques dealer and collector who was also an influential figure in men's fashion and interior design in 1960s London. He has been credited with inventing Swinging London, an ...

, (1938–2018), antique dealer and collector, credited with inventing

Swinging London The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in ...

Walter Burton Harris Walter Burton Harris (29 August 1866 – 4 April 1933) was a journalist, writer, traveller and socialite who achieved fame for his writings on Morocco, where he worked for many years as special correspondent for ''The Times''. He settled in the c ...

, (1866–1933), a British diplomat, journalist and author * Claire de Menasce and her second husband Commander Roy Howell RN. Claude-Marie Vincendon, her daughter by her first marriage, was the third wife of

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial pa ...

* Paul Lund, (1915–1966), British

gangster A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -st ...

and friend of William Burroughs * Sir Harry MacLean, (1848–1920), soldier and commander of the Moroccan Army

References

External links

Flickr images
{{Diocese in Europe Churches completed in 1894 19th-century churches in Morocco Churches in Tangier Diocese in Europe Tourist attractions in Tangier 19th-century Anglican church buildings Anglican church buildings in Morocco