Syrian Refugee Carves German Cathedral

An AP story that ran recently in the Washington Post touched us deeply.

We shared the story with our Tysons Interfaith colleagues who also found the story to be very uplifting. We share it again here for all to appreciate:

WASHINGTON POST, June 27, 2022

www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/25/

Syrian refugee spends 5,000 hours carving model of German cathedral

Fadel Alkhudr, a woodcarver who fled war in Syria, was charmed by the cathedral in Cologne, his new home.

Fadel Alkhudr from Syria poses Monday with his wooden model of the Cologne Cathedral on display in Cologne, Germany. Alkhudr, a woodcarver from Aleppo, Syria, fled the war in his home country and arrived in Cologne in 2015. He became fascinated by the cathedral and decided to carve a model. (Martin Meissner/AP) Fadel Alkhudr from Syria poses Monday with his wooden model of the Cologne Cathedral on display in Cologne, Germany. Alkhudr, a woodcarver from Aleppo, Syria, fled the war in his home country and arrived in Cologne in 2015. He became fascinated by the cathedral and decided to carve a model. (Martin Meissner/AP)

When Syrian refugee Fadel Alkhudr arrived in Germany in 2015, the first thing he saw when he stepped out of the train in Cologne was the city’s majestic cathedral.

Alkhudr, 42, became so fascinated by the famous landmark on the Rhine River with its twin spires and elaborate ornaments that he spent hours looking at it. He took photos of it, drew sketches and eventually started carving a wooden model.

For more than 2½ years — or about 5,000 hours, he says — Alkhudr worked on creating a 6½-foot-tall copy of the structure in a small basement that he uses as a workshop in the city.

Alkhudr, who is Muslim, said he developed such a close connection to the Catholic cathedral that at some point it felt like the building became a part of him, “like it’s a dear friend to me.”

The Syrian, who learned carving from his father at the age of 13, first fled to Turkey and then to the western German city of Cologne after his family’s woodcarving business in Aleppo was destroyed during the war in Syria. He said he’s often asked if it didn’t feel strange for a Muslim to dedicate himself to Germany’s most famous Christian house of worship.

Not at all, he says, because growing up in Aleppo before the civil war, he had Muslim and Christian friends, and customers from different religions who came to buy wooden art at the family store.

“When we were in Aleppo we used to have … no issues between a mosque and a church,” the father of five recounts. “Our neighbors were Christian and we are Muslims. We used to invite each other into our homes and there were no problems.”

Alkhudr is one of more than 1 million migrants who came to Germany from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015-2016, escaping war, destruction and poverty in their home countries. He first worked odd jobs to make a living, brought his family over in 2017, and, since 2019, focused on creating the cathedral model. He hopes that in the future he can also make a living in Germany as an art carver.

Alkhudr used hard beech wood and 50-year-old tools from Syria that his father had passed on to him. The end result was 6½ feet in height and length, and about 4½ feet in width.

The original cathedral is 500 feet tall and took more than 600 years — from 1248 to 1880 — to complete. It’s a United Nations World Heritage Site and hosts the Shrine of the Three Kings, believed to contain the bones of the “Three Wise Men.” The cathedral is one of Germany’s top tourist attractions and one of the oldest and most important pilgrimage sites of Northern Europe.

Alkhudr’s delicately chiseled work is on exhibit at the cathedral’s Domforum visitor center just across from the original. The Syrian hopes that he can present his woodwork in other cities, too, and thus spread what he sees as the cathedral’s unifying message.

“For me, the cathedral is a home for all people,” he said.

This blog post is the expressed opinion of its writers and does not necessarily reflect the views of Tysons Interfaith or its members.