The Mar Youssef Church in Romtha
The Mar Youssef (Saint Joseph) church in Romtha is located at 36°54’28.7″N 43°08’48.8″E and 865 metres altitude (adjust), to the east of Dohuk-Nohadra, close to Zawita.

The Chaldean village of Romtha, in the diocese of Amadia is entirely new. The village of Romtha stretches out over one side of the mountain, with the cemetery located on the opposite slope. In May 2007, around thirty houses with running water and electricity were built here, followed by a community centre, a sports club and the Mar Youssef church in 2008. The Mar Youssef (Saint Joseph) church was built upslope of the village. It is a cross-shaped building with a longitudinal layout.
Pic : The Chaldean church Mar Youssef in Romtha. July 2017 © Pascal Maguesyan / MESOPOTAMIA
Location
The Mar Youssef (Saint Joseph) church in Romtha, is located at 36°54’28.7″N 43°08’48.8″E and 865 metres altitude (adjust) at mid-mountain altitude, in an area covered in forests and meadows.
Romtha is a new village, located 10 km east of Dohuk-Nohadra, at the exit from Zawita on the road to Sersink, 15 km to the south of Manguesh, 75 km south-east of Zakho and 55 km south-west of Amadia.
Fragments of Christian history
The local history of Romtha mirrors that of a region of Mesopotamia which was controlled by the kingdom of Adiabene, with Erbil (Arbeles) as its capital city. Judaism was very present here, prior to the region’s evangelisation by the apostles and disciples of Christ, in particular Thomas, Addai (Thaddeus), and Mari, considered as the founding fathers of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East. It is more than likely that the first Christian communities here emerged from local Jewish communities. From the outset, these communities were persecuted by the Persian Empire.
In this region of Mesopotamia, formed of high plateaus and mountains, the Church of the East found refuge and thrived, Christianity experienced a golden age from the 5th to the 7th century when numerous monasteries were built. The arrival of Islam and its development in Mesopotamia changed the balance of power between religious denominations for centuries. Catholicism developed in these provinces from the 17th century onwards, and this intensified from the 18th century onwards thanks to the missionary work of the Catholic congregations. Numerous villages, which were previously members of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, turned to Catholicism and joined the Chaldean church.
Under the Ottoman domination, the area in which the village of Romtha is located was part of the sandjak[1]of Hakkari in the east vilayet[2]of Van, where the Holy Apostolic Assyrian Church was “heavily concentrated and represented over one-third of the population[3].”In the time just preceding the genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians and Chaldeans by the Ottoman Empire, this region was relatively poor and the churches were about to “fall into ruin for the most part[4].”After the Empire was divided up at the end of the First World War, this vast mountainous area came under Iraqi control. The Kurds imposed their hegemony to the detriment of the broken and abandoned Christian communities.
From 1961 to 1991, the repeat bombing and fighting between Kurdish separatists and the government in Baghdad led to constant population displacements, from the villages to the major towns and vice versa. This included the Christian communities and had a major impact on Christian heritage. In the Dohuk-Nohadra governorate, where Romtha is located, “the outcomes of the Saddam era were terrible for the Christian community in Kurdistan. Dozens of extremely ancient churches, rare evidence of the origins of Christianity, were destroyed. Dozens of Christian villages were razed to the ground and their populations deported. Whatever the future holds for Kurdistan, despite the reconstruction attempts, this world has disappeared forever (…)[5]”
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[1]Territorial administrative division of the Ottoman Empire.
[2]Ottoman province, equivalent to a council.
[3]InOubliés de tous. Les Assyro-chaldéens du Caucase,Joseph and Claire Yacoub, Les éditions du Cerf, 2015, p.26
[4]In,“L’Eglise Chaldéenne Catholique, autrefois et aujourd’hui”, Abbé Joseph Tfinkdji, Chaldean priest in Mardin (Mesopotamia), Extract from the Annuaire Pontifical catholique de 1914, Bureaux des Études ecclésiastiques, Paris, 1913.
[5]In « Le livre noir de Saddam Hussein », Chris Kutschera, Oh Éditions, 2005, p.398
Creation of the village of Romtha and the Mar Youssef church
In the second half of the 1990s, after the Gulf war and the progressive emergence of an autonomous Kurdistan, the Christians of Kurdistan returned to their home villages. This phenomenon intensified from 2003 onwards, with the fall of Saddam Hussein and the new wave of anti-Christian persecution by criminal, Islamicist groups. Romtha is an exception to the rule during this period of repatriation. Indeed, the Chaldean village of Romtha, in the diocese of Amadia is entirely new. The Regional Government of Iraqi Kurdistan’s Committee of Christian Affairs negotiated with the owner of the land. An agreement was found and financial support came from the Assyrian Christian benefactor Sarkis Aghajan. In May 2007, around thirty houses with running water and electricity were built here, followed by a community centre, a sports club and the Mar Youssef church in 2008.
The name of the village is linked to its topography. Indeed, it is built in the hollow formed by the two sides of the gently sloping mountains surrounding it. This is why the village is known as Romtha, which means “the high place”in Syriac.
The village of Romtha stretches out over one side of the mountain, with the cemetery located on the opposite slope.
Description of the Mar Youssef church
The Mar Youssef (Saint Joseph) church was built upslope of the village. It is a cross-shaped building with a longitudinal layout. The entrance door to the church on the southern facade is located under a gallery, to the west of which is a prayer altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Inside the church has one single nave. The sanctuary, raised by three steps, is accessed via a holy door with three openings. In the centre the semi-circular-arched door leads onto the high altar. On the side aisles, the narrow openings converge to the right towards the baptismal font and on left to the sacristy. The choir in the sanctuary is mounted with a square cupola with windows; Behind this, the chevet has three radiating chapels. The side aisles also have radiating chapels and form the north and south arms of the cross.
The Mar Youssef church is surrounded by a low perimeter wall.
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