On this day, the first prayer was held at the Greek Orthodox Church of Calcutta, near Kalighat.
Its foundation stone had been laid in 1924 when the Greeks had decided to shift their church for the second time.The first Greek Orthodox Church of Calcutta had been founded in 1752, but was abandoned. The second church came upduring Warren Hastings’s administration, in Amratala area, and was opened in 1781.
The Greeks were a rich and powerful community in Calcutta then. In two centuries, their number would dwindle to single-digit figures in the city. The church became non-functional and was finally locked down in 1972.
In 1991, it was reopened on the initiative of the Greek embassy. The building was restored and the church also embarked on a social welfare mission in Calcutta and around it. Its stately building and Doric columns remain a reminder of the city’s multicultural past and aesthetic.