Adadi Maryam

The southernmost extant rock-hewn church in Ethiopia, Adadi Maryam lies to the west of the Butajira road on a small hill some five minutes’ walk from the village of Adadi. Scholars date the church to sometime between the 12th and 14th centuries, while local tradition associates it with King Lalibela’s visit to nearby Mount Zikwala in ad1106. Adadi Maryam is far closer in style to its counterparts at Lalibela than to any rock-hewn church in Tigrai. Although smaller and more roughly hewn, it is, like several Lalibela churches, a subterranean semi-monolith encircled by a wide tunnel containing a few disused monastic cells. It measures 19m long and 16m wide, and has 24 windows and ten doors. The tunnel that leads from the back of the church to a nearby watercourse was carved later to prevent flooding. It has been suggested that Adadi Maryam was the site of the first meeting, in 1523, between Emperor Lebna Dengal and the Portuguese expedition led by Rodrigo de Lima and documented by the priest Francisco Alvarez. Whether or not this is true, it is known that Ahmed Gragn attacked the church a few years later. Although the excavation survived this raid more or less intact, the large cross above the entrance was severely damaged, and the priests were either killed or forced to flee. The church subsequently fell into disuse, and it remained so for several centuries while the Oromo occupied the surrounding area. Adadi Maryam was discovered by local hunters and reopened during the reign of Menelik II, and it remains in active use today, though its original name has evidently been forgotten – Adadi is the Oromifa name for a type of bush that grows in the vicinity. The Swiss Embassy funded extensive restoration work on the church over 1996–98.