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The Exterior of the Holy Sepulchre
and Calvary
The Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre is a maze of
buildings overlaid the ones on the others through the centuries,
comprising the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, Mount Calvary, the
Chapel of the True Cross and various other chapels which recall
episodes of the Passion of Christ. The history of the church
coincides with the ups and downs in the history of Christianity in
Jerusalem. Early on, with the intent of discouraging the practice of
the Christian cult, Emperor Hadrian buried the entire area under the
terraces of the Capitol of Aelia Capilolina. Following the Christian
victory, Emperor Constanlines mother Helena had the first great
basilica built on the site. It was destroyed by the Persians,
partially reconstructed, and then again razed by the Arabs. The
Crusaders rebuilt the structure seen by Roberts and which has
remained intact down through our times.
Roberts depicted the south entrance to the basilica with its twin
portals. One of these had been walled up since the time of Saladin,
and guardianship of the other was and still is entrusted to two
Muslim families. Until 1832, the Church had been opened only on
occasion of great ceremonies and every pilgrim who entered was
forced to pay a fee. Mehemet AH, the Egyptian Pasha who occupied the
Holy Land in 1831, finally abolished this tradition. But although
access to the basilica had been liberalized, the tax on opening now
fell to the three religious communities that provided services
within it: the Catholics, the Armenians and the Creek Orthodox.
During the Easter season (and it was during this season that Roberts
was in Jerusalem), the courtyard in front of the entrance became a
bazaar specializing in the sale of reproductions of sacred, objects
to the pilgrims - and this tradition continues even today.
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Entrance to the Citadel
The Ciladel oj al-Qal'al rises near the Jaffa
Gate; it is an irregular group of constructions built up over the
course of the centuries and flanked by lowers, among which there
stands out, to the northeast the so-called Tower of David. In 24 BC,
Herod the Great built the Towers of Hippicus, Phasael and Mariam
within the area, of the citadel to protect the northern portion of
his palace. These constructions escaped destruction by Titus in 70
AD, but not at the hands of Hadrian, who sixty-five years later
repressed the last of the attempts by the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem.
The bases of the towers did, however, survive -and with their
gigantic proportions enflamed the imaginations of the pilgrims, who
believed them to be the work of King David. In Byzantine times, the
Citadel offered refuge to the anchorites: the Crusaders, who
re-baptized the Tower of David the "Castle of the Pisans" (Castrum
Pisanorum) rebuilt the complex. It was destroyed anew in 1239, and
finally rebuilt again in the 16th century in the form in which it
was seen by Roberts.
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Encampment of the Pilgrims at Jericho
At ten on the morning on April first, after having
had some "considerable difficulty7' in obtaining horses, Roberts
left Jerusalem on a new itinerary through the most important sites
in the Holy Land. His first stop was at the oasis of Jericho, to
which he had been invited by the Governor of Jerusalem, Achmet Aga,
who had also provided Roberts" escort. The locality, known to have
been inhabited ten thousand years before Christ and rich in Biblical
lore, was a delusion for the artist, who saw in Jericho only "a
small tower around which were scattered a Jew miserable houses or
sheds." The era of archaeological excavation which brought to light
the various historical strata of the city, from the Bronze Age
through the Crusades, had yet to begin. All in all, what struck
Roberts most strongly was the oriental flavor of the encampment,
with in the foreground the Governor's lent and the colorful costumes
of the pilgrims from various countries. Today. Jericho is a small
city of about seven thousand inhabitants with modern buildings,
elegant hotels and a pilgrims" hostel.
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Descent to the Valley of the Jordan
Roberts sketched tins view of the Jordan valley
from the caravan track that from Jerusalem led to Jericho and from
there to Mesopotamia and India. The artist wax fascinated by the
spectacle, which according to tradition coincides with the only
sight of the Promised Land granted to Moses. Roberts confided to his
journal that "The view, when we emerged from the rocky hills, was
one not to be forgotten. The Valley of the Jordan lay stretched
beneath our feel, in all the beauty of an Eastern evening. The Dead
Sea, the silvery line of the rapid Jordan just visible, the gay
colors of the pilgrim encampment glittering in the last rays of the
selling sun, were filler for the poet than the painter"
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The Immersion of the Pilgrims
This drawing represents a scene common to many
ancient pilgrimages to the Holy hind: balking in the waters of the
River Jordan at the place designated by tradition as that of Jesus'
baptism. The origins of this pilgrimage date back to the first
centuries of the Christian era, when in many cases the catechumens
journeyed to the site in order to receive their baptism there, liven
when during the period of Muslim rule bands of marauders tyrannized
the area, persons intent on performing the ritual immersion at any
cost often came to site in caravans of two to three thousand,
escorted by armed troops.
Today, the Christians of Jerusalem make the pilgrimage on the
occasion of the Epiphany; at the site of Jesus' baptism there now
stands a chapel with a stair which permits descending to the water's
edge and taking a boat across the river.
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Bethlehem. The Grotto of the Nativity
From the choir of the basilica, Roberts descended
into the Grotto of the Nativity, the site attributed by tradition to
the birth of Jesus. The grotto takes the form of a rectangle, about
three and one-half meters wide by a little more than twelve in
length. To the right as one enters are three lamps hanging over the
manger in which the newborn Jesus was lain; on the opposite side an
altar stands on the place the Wise Men supposedly laid down their
gifts.
In Roberts' time, the grotto was illuminated by only fifty or so
oil-burning lamps: today the walls are protected by a fireproof
covering donated in 1874 by the then-President of France Mac-Mahon.
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Bethlehem. Shrine of the Nativity
Having reached Bethlehem on the evening of 5
April, Roberts found accommodations with the monks of the Latin
monastery and made a sketch of the interior of the Chapel of the
Nativity, which stands on the traditional site of Jesus' birth. The
cult of the sacred grotto is extremely ancient and has survived
through the centuries despite the persecutions. Constantine and
Saint Helena sponsored construction of a grandiose basilica, the
original form, of which was revealed by the excavations of 1934. The
church we see today dates back to the time of Justinian and despite
many modifications its structure has remained basically unaltered.
The church was spared by the Persian hordes that in 614 swept over
Palestine: it is said that they were stopped by the sight of the
portrayal of the three Wise Men in Persian national costume that
adorns its facade.
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The Chapel of Saint Saba
Leaving the Jordan behind him, Roberts set out
toward Bethlehem, and on his way saw the Valley of Fire over which
looms the fortified convent of Saint Saba. He stopped there on the
night of 4 April, receiving from the "friendly monks" of Greek
Orthodox persuasion hospitality for his group and permission to make
a sketch of the chapel dedicated to the saint. Rich in
ornamentation, in the style typical of the Orthodox churches, the
chapel pays honor to the saint born in 439 in Cappadocia, who at
eight years of age withdrew from the world into hermitage in the
desert.
Shortly prior to Roberts' visit, in 1834, the 5th-century monastery
had been damaged by an earthquake that had made restoration
necessary.
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Nablus
Following his visit to Bethlehem, Roberts returned
to Jerusalem, where he stayed another week, from 8 through 15 April.
The war that had broken out in Syria forced him to abandon his plans
to travel to Damascus, but it did not hinder his continuing his
journey through the south of Palestine and Lebanon. The first stop
on his itinerary, on 17 April, was Nablus, the administrative center
of Samaria, that Flavia Neapolis founded in the year 71 by Emperor
Titus, who was probably reminded by the beauty of the area of the
natural selling of Naples. Roberts liked Nablus too, and in his
journal he defined it as being, with its gardens and abundant water,
"by far the most beautiful town I have seen in Syria," Syria being
in Roberts time the appellative most generally used to indicate the
entire. Holy Land.
The drawing shows the minarets of the mosques of Jarnia al-Kabir
and, an-Nasr, built using stones pillaged from medieval churches and
Roman monuments in the nearby Sebasle; and the ancient synagogue of
the Samaritans, where, Roberts was allowed to view the manuscripts
of the Samaritan Pentateuch. The synagogue, was razed by the
devastating earthquake that struck Nablus in 1927; today, the small
surviving Samaritan community has moved out of the city to the foot
of Mount Gerizirn.
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