The altar was believed to be lost for centuries — then archaeologists found it leaning against a wall in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with graffiti covering the back of it.
Shai Halevi/Israel Antiquities AuthorityThe circular design pattern of the altar.
In 2018, archaeologists discovered a lost altar from the Crusades in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It had vanished from the historical record centuries earlier, but it was actually hidden in plain sight, leaning against a wall in a rear corridor of the church with graffiti covering the back of it.
Now, researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences studying the altar have uncovered a previously unknown link between Jerusalem and Rome.
Archaeologists Rediscover The Long-Lost Altar
In 2018, archaeologists were conducting work in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a 4th-century church in Jerusalem that sits on the site where Jesus Christ was said to have been crucified and entombed, when they spotted a stone slab leaning against a wall in a rear corridor.
Nobody knew how long the slab had been there, but for years, tourists had been covering the stone in graffiti as they passed by it. When the researchers flipped it over, they were stunned to see the front of the long-lost altar.
Amit Re’em/Israel Antiquities AuthorityGraffiti covering the back of the stone.
The altar dates back to 1149 when Christian crusaders controlled Jerusalem. It was decorated using a technique called “Cosmatesque” that only Roman guild workers mastered, and it’s just the second of its kind ever found outside of Italy.
In a recent press release, the Austrian Academy of Sciences wrote: “The technique was characterized by the fact that its masters could decorate large areas with small amounts of the precious marble, which in medieval Rome was mainly scraped from ancient buildings — by assembling small marble splinters with the greatest precision and attaching them to stone supports to create geometric patterns and dazzling ornaments.”
The slab features circular designs meant to symbolize the infinity of God’s creation, the five wounds of Jesus, and the Jerusalem Cross. Its presence in Jerusalem tells researchers that the Pope likely sent a master to the city to craft this altar for use in one of Christianity’s most holy sites.
The Church Of The Holy Sepulchre And The Site Of Jesus Christ’s Tomb
According to Biblical sources, Jesus was crucified before being buried in a tomb in Jerusalem. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre claims to sit atop this tomb, making it one of the most important sites in Christianity.
Gerd Eichmann/Wikimedia CommonsThe Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The 4th-century church was a key site during the Crusades, and following the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099, Christians renovated the structure after removing it from Muslim control. The altar was added around 1149 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the event.
“We know of pilgrimage reports from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries about a magnificent marble altar in Jerusalem,” Ilya Berkovich, a historian at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, stated in the press release. However, that altar vanished from the historical record in the 19th century.
Roy Elbag /Ilya Berkovich/Amit Re’emAn artistic rendition of the medieval altar.
For centuries, it was believed to have been lost in a fire that destroyed part of the church in 1808.
The question of how the altar went unidentified for so long is still a mystery. More than a million visitors pour into the church every year, and it has been the subject of many research projects for centuries.
“The fact that something so important could lie undetected in this place for so long was completely unexpected for everyone involved,” said Berkovich.
After reading about the lost altar at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, dive into the story of the Holy Grail, the legendary Christian relic. Then, learn the true story of the Knights Templar, the Catholic military order of the Crusades.
