Via Dolorosa - I Station (Jerusalem)

 street, interesting place, historic landmark

I Station

The First Station is near the Monastery of the Flagellation, where Jesus was questioned by Pilate and then condemned. "Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe, And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with their hands" (John, XIX 1-3). The chapel, built during the 1920s on the site of a previous building erected by the Crusaders, is now run by the Franciscans, who set out from there each Friday for the traditional procession. The church possesses admirable stained-glass windows representing Christ Scourged at the Pillar, Pilate Washing his Hands, and the Freeing of Barabbas. Above the high altar, under the central dome, is a mosaic on a golden ground showing the Crown of Thorns Pierced by Stars.

II Station

The Second Station is near the remains of an ancient Roman construction known as the Arch of Ecce Homo, in memory of the words pronounced by Pilate as he showed Jesus to the crowd. Only part of this triumphal arch, erected under Hadrian (135 AD) to celebrate the capture of Jerusalem, is visible nowadays. The left arch, which no longer exists, formed at one time part of a monastery of Islamic dervishes; while the right arch is still preserved today inside the Church of the Sisters of Zion. This church was built during the second half of last century on a site which has yielded the remains of ancient ruins, such as the already mentioned Roman arch, part of the fortifications and courtyard of the fortress Antonia and remarkable vestiges of the Roman-age street paving, the so-called Lithostratus. On some of the stones are the signs of an ancient dice game, which has given support to the hypothesis that this was the place where the Roman soldiers gambled for Jesus' clothes. Mention should be made, finally, of the Struthion Pool, an ancient water reservoir from 2nd century BC, later roofed over by the Emperor Hadrian.