Palestine and Syria:  Handbook for Travelers

The Gate of St. Stephen probably dates in its main features from the time of Solimân (p. 103). The passage through it, however, has recently been formed in a straight direction, whereas originally, like most of the other city-gates (comp. p. 103), the gate was built at an angle with the thoroughfare. This gate is called by the natives Bâb el-Asbât, and by the Christians Bâb Sitti Maryam, or Gate of Our Lady Mary (p. 76). On the outside, over the entrance, are two lions hewn in stone, in half-relief. The gate-keepers show a footprint of Christ, preserved in the guard-house. (For the church of St. Stephen, see p. 105.)

Within the gate a doorway immediately to the right leads to the Church of St. Anne (PI. 2).

The site of this church was presented by the Sultan 'Abdu'l-Mejîd to Napoleon III. in 1856, after the Crimean war. As early as the 7th cent, a church of the highly revered St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin, is mentioned. A nunnery afterwards sprang up to the S. of it, and at the time of the Crusades gained a high reputation in consequence of numbering several princesses among its sisterhood. At that period, about the middle of the 12th cent., the church of St. Anne was remodelled. Saladin afterwards established a large and well-endowed school here, and it was consequently difficult for Christians to obtain access to it until 1856. The Arabs still call it es-8alahîyeh, in memory of Saladin. No material alterations have been made in the buildings since the time of the Crusaders. The church and site now belong to the Frêres de la Mission Algêrienne.

The main entrance to the church on the W. side consists of three pointed portals, leading into a corresponding nave and aisles. The building is 40 yds. long and 20 1/2 yds. wide, the width of the nave being 9 yds. The nave is separated from the aisles by two rows of pillars which bear four pointed arches, 42 ft. in height, and pierced with small windows. The three arches which form the aisles are 24 ft. in height. The walls of the aisles are also pierced with small pointed windows. Above the centre of the transept rises a tapering dome, which was probably restored by the Arabs. The apses are externally polygonal, and rounded -within. The principal apse has three windows, and each of the others one. A flight of 21 steps in the S.E. corner descends to a crypt, which is almost entirely hewn in the rock, and consists of two parts, the second of which resembles a cistern. This was formerly a sanctuary with altars, and is said by tradition to have been the dwelling of St. Anne and the birth place of the Virgin. Within the last few years the graves of SS. Joachim and Anna have also been shown here (comp. p. 86). Explorers have discovered traces of ancient paintings here. Before quitting the church the visitor should pause for a moment before a low door in the S. aisle, in order to examine the curious corbels by which the lintel is supported. — A convent and seminary have also been built on the land belonging to the church, and in the course of their construction an ancient rock-hewn pool was discovered, with chambers and traces of a mediaeval church above it. The Pool of Bethesda seems to have been sought for here in the middle ages (comp. p. 63).

We now return to the Tarîk Bâb Sitti Maryam street, proceed towards the W. , and soon pass a cross-street which leads to the left to the Bâb Hotta of the Harâm and to the right into a small bazaar. Here, at the point where the street is vaulted over, we observe some relics of ancient buildings (traditionally said to be part of the ancient fortress Antonia); behind a small Muslim cemetery is a hall formerly used as a school. Here, too, the inscription mentioned on p. 37 was found. Soon afterwards, we observe the small Chapel of. the Scourging (PI. 31) to the right. Visitors knock, and are admitted by a Franciscan. In the course of the last few centuries the place of the scourging has been shown in different parts of the city, having been first pointed out in the so-called house of Pilate. In 1838 the present site was presented to the Franciscans by Ibrâhim Pasha, and in 1839 the new chapel was erected with funds presented by Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. Below the altar is a hole in which the column of the scourging is said to have stood (p. 66).

A few paces farther is the entrance to the barracks, and here begins the Via Dolorosa, or 'street of pain', the route by which Christ is said to have borne his cross to Golgotha. The present barracks (PI. 11), occupying the site of the ancient castle of Antonia, are said to stand on the ground once occupied by the Pratorium, the residence of Pilate.

As early as the 4th cent, the supposed site of that edifice was shown somewhere near the Bâb el-Kattânîn (p. 55), and in the 6th cent, it was occupied by the basilica of St. Sophia. At the beginning of the Frank regime it was instinctively felt that the prætorium should he sought for on the W. hill, in the upper part of the town, but towards the end of the Crusaders' period that holy place was removed by tradition to the spot where it is now revered. The so-called holy steps were on that occasion transferred to the church of S. Giovanni in Laterano at Rome.  The Roman Catholics, however, strenuously maintain the authenticity of a small chapel in the Turkish barracks as the first station. The direction of the Via Dolorosa, it need hardly be remarked, depends on the situation assigned to the prætorium. The present Via Dolorosa is not expressly mentioned until the 16th century.

The traditional Street of Pain, or Way of the Cross, first follows the street Tarîk Bâb Sitti Maryam (p. 76) westwards. The Fourteen Stations are indicated by tablets. The first is the chapel in the Turkish barracks already mentioned; the second, where the cross was laid upon Christ, is below the steps ascending to the barracks. We next observe, on the right, the large and handsome building of the Sisters of Zion (PI. 82). An arch crosses the street here, called the Ecce Homo Arch, or Arch of Pilate, marking the spot where the Roman governor is said to have uttered the words : 'Behold the man !' (St. John xix. 5). The arch, which has been shown since the 15 th century, is probably a Roman triumphal arch, but has been frequently remodelled. The N. pier has been built into the wall of the house of the Sisters of Zion ; a smaller arch adjoining it on the N. now forms the choir of the Church of the Sisters of Zion.  This church is partly built into the rock. The interior is simple ; the capitals of the columns are gilded. In the vaults under the church we may trace the Roman pavement to the full breadth of the larger arch. Under the convent have been discovered several deep rocky passages and vaults running in the direction of the Harâm. — Opposite the church, on the left side of the street, is situated a small mosque and a monastery of Indian dervishes; in the outer wall of the monastery is a niche, said to be connected with the Virgin Mary.

We may now descend the street to the point where it is joined by that from the Damascus Gate, and here we see a trace of the depression of what was formerly the Tyropæon valley (p. 11).  To the right is situated the Austrian Pilgrims' Hospice. Opposite, on the left, on the site of the former baths of the sultan, are the Hospice of the United Armenians and their church of Notre Dame du Spasme (ancient mosaic pavement). Close by is a broken column, forming the third station , near which Christ is said to have sunk under the weight of the cross (an event formerly located at a different spot). The Via Dolorosa runs hence a little to the S. To the right, about halfway, before a lane diverges to the left (E.), is situated the traditional House of the Poor Man (Lazarus) , beyond which, opposite this lane, is the fourth station (tablet on a house), where Christ is said to have met his mother. At the next street coming from the right the Via Dolorosa again turns to the W., and now joins the Tarîk el-Alâm, or route of suffering, properly so called. A little to the S. of the corner to the left is shown the picturesque mediaeval House of Dives (the rich man), of which there is no mention before the 15th cent. The house is built of stones of various colours and possesses a small balcony. Here is the fifth station, where Simon of Cyrene took the cross from Christ. A stone built into the next house to the left has a depression in it said to have been caused by the hand of Christ. We now ascend the street for about 100 paces, and, near an archway, we come to the sixth station. To the left is the House (and Tomb) of St. Veronica (chapel of the United Greeks, recently restored; below is an ancient crypt). Veronica is said to have wiped off the sweat from the Saviour's brow at this spot, whereupon his visage remained imprinted on her handkerchief.

Before passing through the vaulting into the Sûk es-Sem'âni we see to the left a house against which Christ is said to have leaned, or near which he fell a second time. Where the street crosses the lane from the Damascus Gate is the seventh station, called the Porta Judiciaria, through which Christ is said to have left the town. Close by is a modern chapel containing an ancient column, said to be connected with the Gate of Justice. Passing the entrance of the Hospice of St. John, we observe about thirty paces farther a hole in a stone of the Greek monastery of St. Caralombos (PI. 61) to the left. This is the eighth station, where Christ is said to have addressed the women who accompanied him. The Via Dolorosa ends here. In former times it was probably continued further southwards.  The ninth station is in front of the Coptic monastery (p. 72), where Christ is said to have again sunk under the weight of the cross (which was really borne by Simon of Cyrene). The five last stations are in the Church of the Sepulchre : the tenth is by a ring of stone in the pavement of the Golgotha chapel of the Latins (p. 70), where Christ is said to have been undressed; the eleventh, where he was nailed to the cross, is in front of the altar (p. 70); the twelfth, that of the raising of the cross, is in the adjacent Greek chapel of that name (p. 69); the thirteenth, where he was taken down from the cross, is at an altar between the 11th and 12th stations; and, lastly, the fourteenth is by the Holy Sepulchre (p. 64). — The various records of pilgrimages show that the spots to which these traditions attach have frequently been changed.