The Forty Martyrs Armenian Cathedral in Aleppo was re-consecrated on Saturday, March 30, four years after militants ransacked the building, Al-Masdar News reports.

His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, visited the historic church after its reconstruction meant it could be opened again after Jabhat Al-Nusra razed parts of the compound back in April 2015.

Aram I held a service attended by dozens in which he declared the site sacred once again.

The Armenian diaspora in Aleppo can be traced back some 2,000 years and tens of thousands remained in the city up until the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.