The Construction of St. Hagop Armenian Church

in Pinellas Park Florida, USA (page1) (page2)

St. Hagop was designed to have traditional Armenian architecture and is modeled on the cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin, located near the Armenian capital of Yerevan. To make the church as identical  as possible, they are importing a distinctive  bricks made of tufa, a red basalt stone native to the Armenia. This is going to be the only church in America with red tufa.

Using the stone in the construction of the church also will require specially skilled workers from Armenia, which will delay the completion of the sanctuary until February 2007.