Garden of Gethsemane

Garden of Gethsemane

On the western slope of the Mount of Olives near the brook of Kedron the garden of Gethsemane is spread. Until now only a part of the garden of Biblical times has been preserved but eight olive trees that were planted in the first century A.D. still blossom. In Christianity the garden of Gethsemane is honored as one of the places related to the Passions of Christ and is a site of Christian pilgrimage. In the garden there is the grotto, in which Christ prayed when he went away from the apostles. One can see the spot on the floor where the drops of bloody sweat of Christ melted the cold stone and went through. From 1681 the garden of Gethsemane was in control of Franciscans.

On the spot where, as tradition has it, Judas betrayed Christ back in the V century a basilica was built. In 1919-1924 a modern church of All Nations was built. It was called this name after 12 Catholic assemblies from different countries of the world that offered money for its construction. On the walls of the temple are the mosaic pictures depicting “the Prayer of Gethsemane,” “the Betrayal of the Savior” and “the Arrest of Christ.” On the floor before the altar is the crown of thorns girdling the rock on which Jesus prayed. Blue stained-glass windows produce inside of the church semi-darkness that signifies the last night of Christ on the earth.

Near the garden of Gethsemane the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is located built in XII century on the site where in 326 Empress Helena built the first church.

The church is under the ground, the entry is from the south. From the entry downstairs one can walk down the wide stony staircase that has 48 steps. The underground church has the shape of a cross and in its semi-basement facility there are the tombs of the parents of the Blessed Virgin Joachim and Anna (the right side of the altar) and Joseph the Betrothed (the left side of the altar). In the lowest part of the temple, in the cavern closed by the gravestone there is the tomb where the apostles put the body of Virgin Mary after she died. The tomb was opened according to the decision of the Sixth ecumenical council (680-681) and in it there were found a belt and funereal shrouds. The church belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church, but there are representations of Russian, Coptic, Syrian and Armenian communities.

The total size of the temple has the length of 34 meters from east to west and the width of 6 meters from north to south. The staircase that leads into the temple has the width of around 6,5 meters.