# What happened to the Church of St Mark in Alexandria during the Napoleonic invasion?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-church-of-st-mark-in-alexandria-during-the-napoleonic-invasion/784196>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 10, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-church-of-st-mark-in-alexandria-during-the-napoleonic-invasion/784196 "2017-04-10T20:36:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-church-of-st-mark-in-alexandria-during-the-napoleonic-invasion/784196/1 "2017-04-10T20:36:41Z")

</div>

While looking at the wiki entry for the [Church of St March in Alexandria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Mark%27s_Coptic_Orthodox_Cathedral_(Alexandria)) (that was recently attacked by ISIS), I saw this snippet:

> [@](#):
>
> The church was pulled down during the French invasion of Alexandria in July 1798.

There is no other description, and the event is not mentioned in the page on the French invasion of Egypt. I can’t find any other references to this event.

So what did happen the Church of St March during the French of Invasion? Was it pulled down? And by whom? I found a reference to the French pulling down part of the Church of St Mark in VENICE that same year, so is this an erroneous entry?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-church-of-st-mark-in-alexandria-during-the-napoleonic-invasion/784196/2 "2017-04-12T11:35:42Z")

</div>

The chuech, and a bunch of other churches near it, we’re destroyed during the French occupation. I’ve seen distant acc ones, so don’t know if it was destroyed in the battle for the city, by French troops during the occupation, or by anti French mobs taking revenge on Copts for the occupation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2017, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-church-of-st-mark-in-alexandria-during-the-napoleonic-invasion/784196/3 "2017-04-12T12:08:25Z")

</div>

It’s had a pretty chequered history

> [@](#):
>
> AD 311, The church was then a little chapel on the eastern coast, and it contained bodies said to be of Saint Mark and some of his holy successors.  
> AD 641: the church was greatly ruined when the Arabs invaded Egypt.  
> AD 680: Pope John III – the 40th Pope – rebuilt the church.  
> AD 828: the body of Saint Mark was stolen by Italian sailors and was taken from Alexandria to Venice in Italy. However, Saint Mark’s head remained in Alexandria.  
> 1219: the church was destroyed during the time of the crusades, then it was rebuilt once more.  
> July 1798: the church was pulled down during the French invasion of Alexandria.  
> 1819: the church was rebuilt and opened by Pope Peter El Gawly in the time of Mohammed Ali Pasha.  
> 1870: the church was renewed in the time of Pope Demetrius II and by the supervision of Bishop Marcos of El Behira.  
> Between the years 1950 – 1952, in the time of Pope Yusab II, the church building was pulled down and another, larger building was built with reinforced concrete after the basilique style.

I am not sure why it was “pulled down” by N. but he wanted to appease the muslim leaders and it’s possible that someone thought that destroying a Christian Church might curry favour with them.