Lion Gate (Jerusalem)
The Lion Gate ( Hebrew שער האריות Sha'ar HaArayot , Arabic باب الأسباط, DMG Bāb al-Asbāṭ 'Gate of the Tribes'), also St. Stephen's Gate , is one of the eight gates of the old city of Jerusalem . It was built in the time of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1538. This gate leads north of the Temple Mount from the east into the Muslim Quarter of the walled city. A few meters behind the gate is the house where Mary was born on the right-hand side , a few meters further the Church of St. Anna and the Bethesda Pond . The street leading from the Lion Gate into the city turns into Via Dolorosa after a few hundred meters .
Names
Even before the Jewish War (66–70 AD), the city wall (so-called “Third Wall”) ran in this area and a city gate can be assumed as access from the east. Possibly it is mentioned in the Gospel according to John with the name "Shaftor" ( ancient Greek ἡ προβατική hē probatikḗ ).
The pagan city of Aelia Capitolina , newly built on the ruins of Jewish Jerusalem under Emperor Hadrian , also had a gate in this area; the pilgrim from Bordeaux (334 AD) simply called it the “East Gate.” For Christian pilgrims in Byzantine times, this East Gate was important because it allowed access to the Marian tomb and the Garden of Gethsemane .
For the early Islamic period, al-Muqaddasi handed down the name "Jerichotor" ( bab ariḥa ). Because the gate leads to the Marian tomb, it is called in Arabic باب ستي مريم bab sitti marjam 'Gate of my mistress Maria'. In sources from the time of the Crusaders, the gate is called "Josaphattor" because the Kidron valley was mostly called Josaphattal at that time. Occasionally the gate was also called "Ölberg Gate" ( porta oliveti ).
It was not until later, in the 15th century, that the name “Stephanstor” came up for this gate, as the biblical story of the stoning of Stephen was no longer located in front of the Damascus Gate, but here. This is an example of how localizations of biblical events in Jerusalem have been adapted to the needs of visitors and pilgrims.
Sultan Suleyman I , who had the old town wall and its gates built, gave the gate the name "Gate of the Jordan Valley" ( bab al-ghor ), which can be read as an official name on the donor's inscription (1538/39 A.D.). Two reliefs on the outside of the wall, probably built as spolia , which were interpreted as lions, gave the east gate of the old city of Jerusalem the name "Lion Gate."
history
The east gate of Byzantine Jerusalem is shown on the mosaic map of Madaba ; it was flanked by two towers. In early Islamic times the gate was shod with iron.
The Suleyman's gate system was an articulated gate: the passer-by had to turn left after entering the gate, where a second arch can still be seen today. A similar construction still exists at the Zion Gate today . Titus Tobler describes the situation in the middle of the 19th century : “The gate has two iron-clad wings. … In a guard room of the gate, a footprint is shown on a stone in the wall, supposedly coming from Christ. The soldiers like to show him and assure that the pilgrims come to worship him. "
The original back wall of the gate was removed during the British Mandate to facilitate traffic.
The Lion Gate is the main entrance from the old town to the Mount of Olives . During the Six Day War, the Israeli army bombed the Auguste Viktoria ridge with napalm at dawn on June 7, 1967 , whereupon the Jordanian army withdrew. Israeli paratroopers took the Mount of Olives. At 9.45 am Israeli tanks shot at the Lion Gate. They destroyed the bus that was blocking it and blew up the gate. Subsequently, Israeli soldiers stormed the gate under a Jordanian fire. Shortly afterwards, the Temple Mount was also in Israeli hands.
Building description
The outer facade of the lion gate has an (empty) field of inscriptions above the lintel. Above it you can see a high broken arch and above it again a cast bay window. Slits, round openings and ornaments are symmetrical on both sides. The four animal reliefs can be seen in two pairs with heads facing each other on either side of the gate at the level of the inscription field. On the south side of the inner gate is the donor's inscription Süleymans I.
It is generally assumed that the reliefs walled up in the Suleyman's gate complex actually show the heraldic animal of the Mamluk ruler Baibars I and are therefore spolia. Because the name Baibars means "panther", his heraldic animal is often identified in literature as a panther. In fact, Baibar's heraldic animal was the lion. In this respect, the "lion gate" is appropriately named.
General view 2008
Detail of Baibars heraldic animals
Detail of Baibars heraldic animals
literature
- Max Küchler : Jerusalem: A Handbook and Study Guide to the Holy City . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Jean Zumstein : The Gospel of John , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2016, p. 206.
- ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem: A Handbook and Study Travel Guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 100.
- ^ A b Max Küchler: Jerusalem: A Handbook and Study Travel Guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 101.
- ↑ Jerome Murphy-O'Connor: The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 . Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2008, p. 21.
- ↑ Titus Tobler: Topography of Jerusalem and its surroundings . First book: the holy city . Reimer, Berlin 1853, p. 148 f.
- ↑ Simon Sebag Montefiore : Jerusalem: The Biography . Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 2012, p. 698.
- ↑ Max Küchler: Jerusalem: A handbook and study travel guide to the Holy City , Göttingen 2007, p. 101 f.
- ↑ Thomas Herzog: History and Imaginaire: Origin, Tradition and Meaning of the Sīrat Baibars in their socio-political context. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2007, p. 409.
Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 51 ″ N , 35 ° 14 ′ 12.8 ″ E