Church of St. Anne (Jerusalem)

St. Anne's Church

inside view

The St. Anne's Church (also: St. Anne's Church ) is a church building in the Old City of Jerusalem , which is near the Lion Gate and next to the Bethesda is pond. It bears the title of a minor basilica .

history

The church stands on the site of a previous Byzantine church that Aelia Eudocia had built in honor of Mary . This church was destroyed by the Persians in 614, but was rebuilt soon after. Like other Christian sites in Jerusalem, the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim had this church destroyed in 1009.

The building, which can still be seen now, was built by Avda, Baldwin I's widow , in 1142 because it was assumed that Joachim and Anna , Mary's parents, lived next to the Bethesda Pond . After the conquest of Jerusalem by Sultan Saladin , the church was a Koran school from 1192 . In 1856, Sultan Abdülmecid gave the building to Napoleon III as thanks for the support of the Ottoman Empire in the Crimean War . At that time, however, the building was in a deplorable condition. The Turks believed the place was bewitched and the Turkish governor had used the church as a stable for horses. The rubbish that had accumulated inside reached almost under the roof. If you take a closer look at the facade of the church, you will notice that the walls are slightly inclined - an indication of the weights of the vaults, which are not sufficiently derived from the buttresses. The French government commissioned the architects Honoré Daumet and Christophe Édouard Mauss (1829–1914) with the restoration. The building was also freed of fixtures from the time of profane use. The Church was then entrusted to the White Fathers by the French government with the task of looking after this site and the pilgrims. From 1878 they also led the seminary for the clergy of the Greek-Melchite Church there . Saint Anne has been used by the White Fathers as a spiritual center since 1967.

The building has retained its original, austere beauty to this day and is a testament to the architecture of the 12th century, probably the most beautiful surviving Romanesque church in all of Jerusalem. The new high altar of the three-aisled pillar basilica was made in 1954 by the French sculptor Philippe Kaeppelin. The Annunciation, the birth of Christ and the Descent from the Cross are depicted on it.

The interior of the church is known for the long-lasting reverberation . In the right aisle, an exit leads to an underground grotto , where the birthplace of Mary, the mother of Jesus of Nazareth , is venerated.

Web links

Commons : Church of St. Anne (Jerusalem)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• The Madrasa of Saladin at the Church of Saint Anne

Individual evidence

1. ↑ continents. The magazine of the Africa Missionaries - White Fathers, March / April 2019, p. VII

Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 53.1 ″  N , 35 ° 14 ′ 10.9 ″  E