Monastery of the Cross w/ Annie

Now located in the middle of one of Jerusalem's largest public parks, the Monastery of the Cross is one of the oldest Christian sites in Jerusalem and still a working Greek Orthodox church, school, and monastery.

The monastery claims to be built where the tree that furnished the wood for the cross once grew. According to Syriac Christian tradition, the three angels who visited Abraham left their staffs with him when they departed. Sometime later, Abraham's nephew, Lot, committed incest and subsequently came to Abraham to seek advice on how he could make right his sin. Abraham gave Lot the three angelic staffs and instructed him to plant them at the outskirts of Jerusalem and water them from the Jordan river. If they blossomed, Lot would know that God had forgiven him. Despite some interference from the Devil, the staffs blossomed into a single tree of pine, cedar, and cypress. This tree would ultimately be cut down to make the cross.

Also according to legend, the site was discovered by Constantine's mother, Helen, who took a trip to Jerusalem (then called "Aelia Capitolina") to seek out relics from the life of Jesus. While features of the current structure date to the 4th century, the main structure was built by Georgians in the 11th, and handed over to the Greek Orthodox (who still occupy it) in the 17th.

Some shots taken in the courtyard:

  

 

One of several exotic birds owned by the monastery that hang out in the courtyard:

 The main chapel. 11th century wall paintings and 6th century mosaic floor.

Annie taking pictures:

 

Inscriptions in this chapel were in two languages. They are Georgian (left) and Greek (right). Since the monastery was handed over to the Greeks in the 17th century, several Georgian inscriptions have been painted over in Greek.

 

The mosaic floor:

Close-up:

 Annie and I posed with our favorite wall-paintings. Mine seems to be two saints. We think the one on the right is John the evangelist, who's named is in a medieval Greek script. The one on the left is labelled in Georgian and we really don't know who it is. The little guy between them (as I learned later from Wikipedia) is a 12th century Georgian poet, Shota Rustaveli, and this is the only extent medieval portrait of him. It was defaced in 2004, and at the time the Georgians blamed the Greek Orthodox for doing so (apparently this was not the first such incident of that kind). It has since been restored. 

 

Close-up of Shota Rustaveli:

 Various niches with statuary were to be found all around the monastery:

Inexplicably short doorway:

Late afternoon light coming in one of the recessed windows:

 Dining hall with solid stone tables built in:

 Oddly plastic-looking plant with green flowers:

Very tall, straight tree in the courtyard. Cypress?

Lemon tree:

Another one of the exotic birds owned by the monastery:

One of the guys who works at the monastery showed us how to make this bird "dance." He clapped his forearms together and called loudly: "Lulululululu". The bird fluffed up his crown feathers and starting dancing around like a nut!