Michael Skir

Jerusalem, the city of gold, the city of Zion, the city of David, so many names have been given to the city where all religions meet, and where the spirit is in every stone.

Today we’ll walk the way of the cross , I’ll try to walk with you like a private tour guide and show you all the little details you need for your private knowledge.

 Via Dolorosa

 The Visa Dolorosa today begins in the Muslim Quarter, and ends in the Christian Quarter, beginning with its path in the oil winepress and ending in the Byzantine Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

 In the 14th century in 1333 the Franciscans established their hold on the Christian places, the Ottoman Turkish rule developed the Muslim Quarter and the Temple Mount.

 But the Christian Quarter and the Way of Suffering were not developed, in those years traditions, such as Station 6  (Veronica), or  3 7 9  stations where  Jesus fell .

In addition to prayer traditions being formed, pilgrims in those  years tell of different stations in Via Dolorosa and a route that is quite similar to the route that exists today, Pope Clemens 12 is the one who set the 14 stations.

 Via Dolorosa’s immense popularity forced the Franciscans to move some of the stations forbidden to worship under Ottoman law into the church.  Only in the 16th century was the route determined as it is today.

 The first stop

 Matthew 27-14

The court of the Praetorium, Pontius Pilate, who judged Jesus, sat in the citadel of Antonia, where he stayed with the Roman forces ( in Jerusalem Pilate also stayed in the citadel of Herod, In Caesarea he had another vila )

Here Jesus was judged and sent for crucifixion.

 Second stop

Binds 2 events

The First Church is the Church of the Conviction and the Forcing of the Cross on the Back of Jesus

The Byzantine church was restored by the Franciscans and rebuilt in 1903 just above the Lirtostratus which are the Roman stones from the time of Jesus, behind the benches we can see engraving marks, in stone, some say it is the king’s game used by the Romans, on the stones carved Elia Capitoline)

The church commemorates the event of the coercion of the cross on the back of Jesus.

The other chapel at the second station is the flogging chapel (which is visited more often) in John chapter 19

 In 1927-29 Antonio Berluchi renovated the Crusader church that was here, Berluchi adorned the church with stained glass depicting the wreath of thorns placed on Jesus’ head, around the inscription in the center of the mosaic floor, as well as the interior decoration of the dome and the arch adorning the lintel.  On the walls of the chapel are three huge stained-glass windows, depicting scenes from the flogging scene.  

Marble pillars, and customer scenes from the Passion of Jesus. Just like in the winepress, the atmosphere here is gloomy and gloomy.

 When we left the church we saw a Franciscan monastery for religious studies called “studium biblicum” franciscanum which is an extension of the Antonianum in the Vatican which was founded in 1927 and contains thousands of books,

In 2001, the Holy see in Rome raised the school to the status of the Faculty of Biblical and Archeological Studies at the Antonianum, which in 2005 was transformed from a school into a papal university.

The exit from the station in front of the conquest monastery right next to a blocked gate were these steps were called Scala Santa in which Jesus descended and are preserved to this day in the Church of Scala Santa in Rome.

 Ecca Homo Arch

 John 19: 5

 We will continue down the street and pass the Ecca Homo arch which is actually part of a triumphal arch to Emperor Adriano.

 According to Christian tradition here Pilate introduced Jesus to the Jews and said it was the man

Zion Sisters Monastery

It was built at the end of the 19th century by a converted Jew.

 The monastery was built on the Straution pool, which collected river water and rainwater, from the Roman Forum built over the moat near Antonia. 

The pool was full of water until about 200 years ago.

In 1865 Charles Warren set out to explore the pool and sailed on raft-shaped doors, the nuns discovered that it was possible to reach the monastery through the pool, and decided to block the entrance to the monastery wall bordering the Stratorion pool.

 Part of the pool borders the Western Wall tunnels and another part continues up to the monastery, another part of the church basement leads to the guard rooms, and to a small museum with the original Roman Litostratus.

On the litostratus you can see engravings in the shape of a crown and the letter B- basilos(king), they used to play with the doll and finally kill it, you can imagine the Romans here in the game of king.

Station 3

We will leave the second station compound and go down the street, a distance of 200 m. At the corner of the street are the 3rd and fourth stations.

The Fall of Jesus (there is no evidence in the New Testament) The third stop is a 13th-century Franciscan tradition

 The station served as a Turkish bath in the 18th century and was handed over to Catholic Armenians, who rented it to Poland until recently, the Poles returned it to the Armenians, who recently renovated it.

Fourth stop

 Jesus meets his mother

 In my opinion the idea of a meeting between a mother and her son is very emotional, and can arouse in us many feelings and questions, did Miriam really come to Jerusalem to meet her son?  Was there such an encounter between the angry mob?

 Franciscan morality is from the 14th century The church was established in 1874 on the ruins of a Crusader church.

 A pair of sandals from the Byzantine period illustrate the floor mosaic but they belong to part of an ancient Byzantine bathhouse

.

 Fifth stop

 Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross

Marcus 15

Kirna is located in Libya, a Greek city ruled by Rome, in Kirna there was a fairly large Jewish community, and its inhabitants established a Jewish community in Jerusalem.

 A tyrannical movement has sprung up in Ireland believing that strangers can take and carry in another person’s suffering.

The chapel was owned by the Franciscans as early as the 13th century but the Ottomans did not allow prayer or sanctification of the place and only later at the end of the 18th century did the fifth station return to be used as a place of prayer.

 Sixth station

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

 The tradition of Veronica begins again in the 14th century although it does not appear in the Gospels The Royal Greek Catholics purchased the church which was renovated by Antonio Berluchi in 1953.

 Christian tradition identifies Veronica with the filthy woman in Matthew 9 20-22 an event that is also commemorated in the church room in the Migdal – Galilee.

 From the sixth to the seventh station we climbe up , because the church and its Golgotha are in the highest place in the city, it is the place of the crucifixion, which was located so that everyone could watch the criminals being crucified.

 The seventh station

Jesus falls for the second time

 Again this tradition is from the 13th century

The chapel is Coptic

 Eighth station

 Luc 23 28

A station with a late 19th century tradition

 Jesus prophesied to the daughters of Jerusalem

 We turn slightly left from the seventh station and immediately go up the stairs to the eighth, where Jesus prophesies to the daughters of Jerusalem. The church is next to St. Charles’ Church.

 Ninth station

 The third fall of Jesus

 Located further up the market towards the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Dir a-Sultan – the Ethiopian compound above the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

 The tenth station

 removal of his clothes.

 The station is inside the church but there is no access to it, it can be viewed from the place of the Calvary- crucifixion.

During the Crusader period it was possible to enter from this room directly to the crucifixion station.

 Station 11

 Is the nailing station for the cross

 The station is Catholic.