Inside Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, the WTC Campus’s Shining Jewel

At Liberty Park, located just steps from the 9/11 Memorial, you’ll find the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at the World Trade Center, a jewel box of pentelic marble.

In the late 19th century, the Greek Orthodox community bought an old tavern in Lower Manhattan, across from what would eventually become the South Tower of the Twin Towers, and turned it into a church. As it was one of the first buildings visible from the Battery Park City docks — where scores of immigrants disembarked after arriving in Ellis Island — they named the church Saint Nicholas after the patron saint of sailors and merchants. 

For nearly a century, the humble church faithfully served the local Greek Orthodox community until it was destroyed on September 11, 2001 — miraculously, no one was inside the church at the time. After years of local and national negotiations, 22 years later the reconstructed Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine opened to the public. Because of its location, and as the only house of worship destroyed on 9/11, Saint Nicholas is notably the only church on public land in the U.S. 

“This whole [WTC] campus has become a nice neighborhood,” Andrew Veniopoulos, executive director at Saint Nicholas, said. Veniopoulos has seen the area change tremendously, both pre- and post-9/11. In fact, his father, who immigrated from Greece, was a woodworker whose first job in the U.S. was to repair the iconostasis in the original church. “He used to always bring me down here,” Veniopoulos said, adding, “I was always part of Saint Nicholas.”  

Other locals, as well as design buffs from around the world, may recall when Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava won the design competition for the new Saint Nicholas with his proposal in 2013. (Calatrava famously also designed the neighboring Oculus at the World Trade Center, which opened in 2016.) Saint Nicholas’ design has been well received and lauded by critics and members of the community alike. Inspired by the form of Byzantine gems like Chora Church and Hagia Sophia, the new design is light, ethereal and decidedly modern for an Orthodox church, topped with an elegant, ribbed dome that lends itself to soaring ceilings and meticulously mastered acoustics. Parts of Calatrava’s design, including between the ribs, comprise a thin sheet of pentelic marble sandwiched between panes of glass to allow sunlight to illuminate the interior of the windowless shrine. The organization obtained special permission from the Greek government to utilize Pentelic marble, the only structure outside of the Parthenon to use the Hellenic material.

The church’s interior, which holds 125 people, feels simultaneously awe-inspiring yet intimate. A big part of that can be attributed to the iconography illustrated by one Father Loukas, an iconographer and monk at the Monastery of Xenophontos in Mount Athos, Greece. Instead of the typical scenes composed of bold, jewel-toned stained glass, Loukas muted the colors when painting the 56 icons in a move that complements and emphasizes the structure’s unique architectural elements and sanctity (and also helped meet the site’s strict safety regulations). The painted icons include scenes you might expect from Christ’s life cycle and the authors of the gospels, but three of these icons are unique to Saint Nicholas and Lower Manhattan. 

In one, the traditional Platytera (a specific view of the Theotokos, or Virgin Mary, with the Christ child) watches over all of New York City. Other Lower Manhattan landmarks, including the Oculus, One World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Brooklyn Bridge, are all depicted as being protected by the Theotokos in this rendition of the icon. In another, Saint Nicholas is rescuing someone from the water as the Twin Towers billow with smoke below. The flotilla of boats that ferried people across the Hudson River to safety on 9/11 are also shown. Veniopoulos’s favorite of the three original icons, the Anastasis, depicts Jesus pulling Adam and Eve from the tomb, symbolically breaking the chains of death, while Saint John, King Solomon and King David look on. Behind them, several others are immortalized at this cenotaph. “To honor those who gave their lives that day,” are likenesses of first responders who perished on 9/11 in uniform: one particular PAPD lieutenant and FDNY lieutenant are depicted in addition to others.

Today, Saint Nicholas acts as a house of worship, event space and national shrine for prayer, reflection and respite. In addition to its three Greek Orthodox services per week, the church hosts special holiday programming and private events. It also acts as a nondenominational space for prayer where visitors can light a candle, with additional community rooms for interfaith meetings. More programming coming soon will include a faith-based bereavement program with priests, imams and rabbis on call. “No matter what your faith, what you believe in, you’re welcome to come in here,” Veniopoulos said. 

This year, Saint Nicholas will host the Epitaphio on Holy Friday (celebrations will take place around Orthodox Easter, which is on May 5, 2024). Other programming this year will include an official 9/11 commemoration.

“We have our own community and it’s growing every day,” Veniopoulos said. 

What is he most excited for? “I can’t wait to see in another year how far we’ve come,” Veniopoulos said. “I want to get the word out and have people come here and feel at home.”