Saints Theodores Greek Orthodox Church

The Byzantine styled St Theodores Greek Orthodox Church is recognised as one of the most beautiful Greek churches in Australia. Its foundation stone was laid in March 1947, and it was officially opened in June 1950 by Archbishop Theophylactos. Greeks had lived in Townsville from 1916, but did not create a formal Greek Orthodox community until the 1940s. They used St James’ Anglican Cathedral for worship. A visit to Townsville by Archbishop Timothios in 1944, led Thedoros Calagatis to offer the archbishop 1000 pounds to build a church. A subsequent meeting at Spero Nennas’s ‘Café Beautiful’ tripled the commitment to build the third Greek Orthodox Church in Queensland. Its architect was M. Vogiatzoglou, and J G Rooney managed the project. The builders were Vause and Hayne and the steel work was fabricated by Townsville firm Gelling and Haig. The interiors are awe inspiring, with religious iconography painted on the ceilings by Lesvos artist, Angelo Manolios. He spent a year lying on his back atop scaffolding to paint the ceilings. Another unusual inclusion is an urn containing earth from Australian soldiers’ graves in Greece; indicative of the Greek government’s admiration and gratitude for Australia’s defence of Greek territory during WWII.