Stella Maris Carmelite Monastery During the Crusader period, Christians began settling in the caves of Mount Carmel in imitation of Elijah the Prophet. They organized themselves into the Carmelite Order. At the time of the Mamluk conquest of 1291, the Carmelites were exiled from the Holy Land, but the order had already spread to Europe […]
Augusta Victoria Augusta Victoria was built on the Mount of Olives by Kaiser Wilhelm II in honor of his wife, Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein. It served as the center for German Protestants in Jerusalem. It included the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension with a 65-meter bell tower and a hospice for Christian pilgrims. Augusta […]
Church of Mary Magdalene. Photo courtesy of BiblePlaces.com. The Church of Mary Magdalene was built by the Czar Alexander III as a commemoration for his mother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. It was built in traditional Russian style, including seven gilded onion domes. Inside is a mosaic floor depicting the legend of Mary Magdalene presenting […]
Dormitian Abbey. Photo courtesy of BiblePlaces.com. The Dormitian Abbey, on Mt. Zion, was built by the order of Kaiser Wilhelm II as a German Catholic church to commemorate the death of Mary, mother of Jesus. It contains mosaic floors depicting the Zodiac as well as pictures of biblical women.
An ornamental inscription found on the side of the stone bridge leading to the Citadel. The inscription bears the name of Suleiman the Magnificent and reads- “Glory to our master Suleiman el-Malik el-Muzaffar Abu en-Nasir Suleiman Shah Ibn Uthman.” The inscription is decorated in the style similar to that of the Mamluk inscriptions of this […]
The Reformation was a series of upheavals between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries which led to the disruption of the western Latin church, until then unified under the authority of the Pope in Rome. National and territorial churches independent of Papal authority were established. They rejected much of Roman ritual and doctrine, and emphasized scripture […]