Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church (Abu Serga) is one of the oldest churches in Egypt, located in Old Cairo and dated to the 4th or 5th century. According to Tradition, it was built in the place of stay of the Holy Family during his stay in Egypt. The church is dedicated to the holy martyrs Sergio and Bacchus, Roman soldiers, whose relics are kept in this church.
The festival of the dedication of the temple is celebrated on October 7/20.
The church was the place of choice for numerous patriarchs of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
According to the Tradition of the local church, the temple is located where the Holy Family took refuge for three weeks during their stay in Egypt. In the lower parts of the church is a crypt on which it is maintained that it was where the Sagrada Familia lived.2 However, the geophysical investigations of the underground part of the construction contradict the thesis that it could be the original one. "Holy crypt", as it was probably built later, in the 2nd century. At a depth of five meters below the current sanctuary, the researchers noted anomalies in the reflection of the seismic waves, which indicate a possible existence of the original crypt ceiling buried at these depths.
In 1164 another martyr of the Coptic church, Saint Bashnouna (Bashnuna al-Maqari), was buried in the temple.
The church is 29.9 meters long and 18.97 wide. It has three domes. The temple was built on a rectangular plan, in the form of a basilica with three naves: the central nave is 15.4 meters high and the lateral naves (north nave and south nave): 6.25 meters each, and with a narthex. The church is oriented, with the main nave covered with a double roof and the lateral ones covered with a flat, horizontal roof.2 4 The characteristic roof of the temple is reminiscent of Noah's Ark. The naves are separated by two rows of columns: eleven of them are made of white marble and one of red granite. Above the side nave there are two small chapels dedicated to personal worship and fasting practices before Easter; one of them is dedicated to the patron saints of the church, Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus, and the other to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Some of the columns contain images of saints. The icons represent scenes from the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints.
In the eastern part of the temple is a sanctuary separated from the main part by a higab, adorned with ebony and ivory, the oldest part of this sanctuary dates back to the 13th century. The wooden canopy on the altar of the sanctuary rests on four pillars and is adorned with biblical scenes, with the image of the Pantocrator and the Archangel Gabriel, among others. The apse behind the altar is adorned with marble mosaics.
The ceiling above the central altar, dedicated to the temple's holy holders, is shaped like a barrel vault. The lateral shrines, the one in the north dedicated to Archangel Gabriel and the one in the south dedicated to Archangel Michael, have shallow domes. In the northwest part is the church's baptistery.
In this church there was formerly the oldest altar in Egypt; It was transferred to the Coptic Museum belonging to the church. There are also fragments of the original wooden ambo.