The Tourism and Antiquities Ministry wrapped the lighting system in the exterior facades of the Basilica Church, located on Al-Ahram Street, along the Baron Empain Palace.
Brigadier Hisham, Samir the Assistant Minister for Engineering and Supervisor of Historic Cairo, explained that the operation of the Basilica lighting comes in conjunction with the final preparations for the opening of the project to develop and restore the Baron Empain Palace.
Meanwhile, all work was done in coordination between the Ministry and the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces.
On other hand, Basma Selim, the general supervisor of Baron Empain Palace, said that the Basilica Church is the fame name, but the real name of it is the Church of “Virgin Mary”, as well as that the word “Basilica” is a word of Greek origin in the sense of “the king of wisdom” and is called in Greece the royal palaces. The Basilica was a center of justice or wisdom.
After that, the churches in Europe were constructed in the same way, so they were called Basilica, but at the present time they are called only for churches of great importance, such as; St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and others.
The Basilica church established in the heart of the suburb of Heliopolis, in a field that was called "Queen Elizabeth Square". It overlooks its main entrance on Baron Street. It is now called Nazih Khalifa Street.
The foundation stone laying ceremony was held in 1911, in the presence of the Queen of Belgium, some bishops, princes, princesses, and foreign ambassadors, all of them seated a large pavilion decorated in the eastern way. By the year 1913, the church was opened.
It celebrated the Diamond Jubilee in 1985; it is considered a masterpiece, built in the Byzantine style, as it is a microcosm of the Church of Agia Sofia in Constantinople in Turkey.
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