Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa tickets: which one to buy

Holy Trinity Cathedral stands in the Arat Kilo district of Addis Ababa, near the parliament and the old imperial palace, and it is one of the few Ethiopian Orthodox churches in the city set up to receive visitors. An entrance fee is charged to foreigners, which includes access to a small museum; a guide is usually available at the gate and is worth taking, since the tombs and paintings need explanation.

City tours of Addis Ababa commonly combine the cathedral with the National Museum, home of the fossil hominid known as Lucy, the Ethnological Museum in the former palace of Haile Selassie, and the Merkato market. Traffic in the city is heavy, so a car and driver or an organised tour is the easiest approach. Shoes must be removed inside the church, and women should cover their heads. Services are long and follow the Ethiopian calendar. Guides at the gate agree a fee in advance, and it is customary to tip at the end.

Visiting Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa: what to see

The cathedral was built in the late 1920s and early 1930s to commemorate Ethiopia's liberation from Italian occupation, and was completed in 1942, making it the most important Orthodox church in Ethiopia after the ancient churches of Axum. It is a large stone building with a copper dome and pinnacles, European in outline but Ethiopian in its decoration. Inside, the stained glass windows show biblical scenes in a distinctive Ethiopian style, there are large murals, including a painting of Haile Selassie addressing the League of Nations in 1936, and the imperial thrones stand beside the sanctuary.

The emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen are buried in granite tombs in the north transept, reinterred here in 2000. The churchyard holds the graves of patriots who fought the Italians and of prominent Ethiopians, including the British suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, who campaigned for Ethiopian independence. The museum displays crowns, robes and ceremonial crosses belonging to the imperial family and the church.

Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa opening hours and the best time to go

Addis Ababa is high, over two thousand metres above sea level, and its climate is mild all year; the main rainy season runs from June to September, when afternoons are wet. The church is open to visitors on most days outside the main service times. Religious festivals follow the Ethiopian calendar: Timkat, the Epiphany in January, and Meskel, the finding of the True Cross in late September, are celebrated across the city with processions and crowds, and are extraordinary to witness.

Sunday mornings are busy with worshippers dressed in white. Altitude can make walking tiring for new arrivals. Allow about forty-five minutes for the church, the tombs and the museum, and combine the visit with the National Museum nearby. Photography is permitted inside the cathedral but not of worshippers during prayer.