Trinity Cathedral & Cemetery

Trinity Cathedral & Cemetery - A comparatively large church in Ethiopia ’s capital city Addis Abab a, which is the place where former emperor Haile Selassie was finally laid to rest. The cemetery surrounding the cathedral also has a number of remarkable graves as well as some dark monuments. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: As is fairly often the case in Ethiopia , it’s not so easy to get hold of truly reliable information about the history of this site. From what I gathered the most likely story is this. The building of the cathedral was begun in the late 1920s or early 1930s, possibly with emperor Haile Selassie himself laying the cornerstone. During the Italian invasion and Selassie’s exile from 1936 construction was halted, but soon after his return building work resumed and was completed in 1942. The churchyard was partially dedicated to those who had fought against the Italian occupation, as well as for the patriarchs of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as other prominent figures – see below . Apparently, this Holy Trinity Cathedral (to give its full title) is the second-most important church in Ethiopia – after the one in Aksum that is one of the alleged locations of the Ark of the Covenant … but I won’t go any deeper into Christian mythology here. In November 2000, the remains of ex-emperor Haile Selassie were transferred to the cathedral in a grand procession and entombed in a big sarcophagus – 25 years after his death at the hands of the Derg (see Ethiopia and Red Terror Museum ), who had simply buried the body in a secret location that was only discovered after the regime’s overthrow in 1991.