All around Jerusalem

Today we started very very early with mass at Golgotha. We didn't get to use the main altar because it is Greek Orthodox and sadly, despite it being the week of Christian unity, we aren't to that level of union yet. Instead we celebrated mass at the altar of the eleventh station of the cross, which is all of ten feet from the main altar.  This altar was paid for by the Medici and was built in 1588, so we weren't exactly settling.

The 500 year old altar we "settled" for.  The mosaic is better in person

After a brief tour of the side chapels, including the rather depressing Syrian Orthodox chapel (it badly needs renovation, but it's techincially on loan from the Armenians, and they and the Syrians want to do it themselves, so the project has been in limbo for decades) and the cool chapel of St. Helena, and breakfast, we went to the western citadel near the Jaffa gate.  Despite tradition and possible ruins depending on interpretation, this is not the citadel of David.  It has amazing views of the old city, so most of us took selfies for Facebook and the like.

The gate in

The inner courtyard

Then we went to the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu (that last word is Latin for rooster's crow), and to be honest I was expecting it to be dull, but it is probably my favorite site so far. It is on Mount Zion and has a stunning view of the Mount of Olives and the old city, as well as the valleys.  As is typical, there are two churches, an upper and lower one, and the upper has these amazing art nouveau mosaics and a stained glass cross in the dome. The lower church has an amazing icon series of Peter denying Christ, Peter repentant, and Peter restored, and as expected is built over a Byzantine basilica.  But under this basilica when they did excavations, they found the ruins of a second temple period villa, and in this villa they found an old cistern that had been clearly turned into a prison marked with Byzantine crosses.

One of the crosses

According to all the Gospels, Peter's denial takes place at the house of the high priest, where Jesus was imprisoned overnight after being found guilty of blasphemy by the Sanhedrin (which in this case meet at the high priest's house) before being tried and crucified by Pilate.  St. Peter in Gallicantu is built over the place where Christ was imprisoned, and so we got to go and stand in place where Jesus spent his last night before the crucifixion.  It was a very moving experience, on par with seeing the Cenacle or Golgotha because they are all connected in the passion of Christ.  And unlike the other two, this site is largely ignored, so there is great stillness for prayer.

The prison cell

We rounded up the day by heading to the Israeli museum, which has the dead sea scrolls, a large archaeological collection, and a very decent art collection.  Unfortunately, the site, which is quite large, is very poorly curated and organized, so while I enjoyed the scrolls, the Picassos, and a traveling exhibit on the Plains Indians, I missed out on the Chagalls, and the chief scroll on display is a facsimile.  if I hadn't discerned properly and instead had followed my plan to be a curator, I would have even stronger opinions (but I would never have seen the Israeli museum).

Tomorrow we are running around the oldest part of Jerusalem, built by David after he conquered Salem.