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Towards Jerusalem: The Architecture of Pilgrimage

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 TOWARDS
JERUSALEM: THE
ARCHITECTURE OF
PILGRIMAGE
City/Architecture PhD by Design Program
Architectural Association School of Architecture
Director of Studies: Dr. Pier Vittorio Aureli | Supervisor: Dr. Maria Shéhérazade Giudici

Candidate: Gili Merin

 INTRODUCTION
TOWARDS JERUSALEM:
THE ARCHITECTURE OF PILGRIMAGE
07
City/Architecture PhD by Design Program
Architectural Association School of Architecture

THE INVENTION OF
Director of Studies: Dr. Pier Vittorio Aureli
Supervisor: Dr. Maria Shéhérazade Giudici C H APT ER O NE
Candidate: Gili Merin
.....

Proof editing: Tamar Shafrir

Graphic design: Michal Sahar

Proof edition: September 30th 2021

With corrections: May 30th 2022
THE HOLY LAND 17
PILGRIMAGE AND THE CHRISTIAN
APPROPRIATION OF JERUSALEM

THE BASILICA AND

C H APT ER T W O

THE ROTUNDA 31
THE CONCEPT OF ANALOGY AND THE RISE OF
URBAN PILGRIMAGE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE

STATION TO STATION
C H APT ER T H REE

51
THEATRICALITY AND DISCIPLINE OF THE VIA
CRUCIS IN THE SACRED MOUNTAIN OF VARALLO

THE INNOCENTS
C H APT ER F O U R

ABROAD 75
VALORISING MONUMENTS,
COMMODIFING PILGRIMAGE

THE STATIONS OF
C H APT ER F I V E

THE CROSS 105

PHOTOGRAPHIC TRAVELOGUE 113

BIBLIOGRAPHY 147
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation would not have been possible without the continuous and uncondi-
tional support and care of my supervisors, Pier Vittorio Aureli and Maria Shéhérazade
Giudici. I would like to thank my peers, Brendon Carlin and Enrica Manneli, for their
companionship and constant feedback regarding my work, and to the talented Michal
Sahar and Tamar Shafrir whose careful edits and design gave form to this final work.
To Daniel Tchetchik and Andrew Meredith for their contribution of photographic tools
and knowledge and to Beatriz Flora from the AA library who laboured to get a hold of
every book I needed for this research. To my fellow-pilgrim,​​Diana Ibáñez López, who
had joined me (both physically and virtually) on many of these journeys, and was a
constant source of new sites, books, and ideas. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Zvi
Efrat, whose consistent mentorship had shaped my ideas and practice.

This disseration is dedicated to the quintessential traveller, my mother, Ora Merin.

INTRODUCTION— 05
 INTRODUCTION
1
Introduction in
Pilgrimage in Graeco-
Roman & Early Christian
Suspended between heaven and earth, Jerusalem Antiquity: Seeing the a rather loose definition: pilgrimage is “a journey
Gods, eds. Jan Elsner and
is not just a site—but an orientation. Occupying a Ian Rutherford (Oxford: to a place of particular interest or significance,”
Oxford University Press,
place in the geographic subconscious of Western 2005), 2
while another source claims, with somewhat
culture, its name is evoked in poetry and dedica- 2 more precision, that “pilgrimage implies a jour-
Coleman, Simon:
tions of cities, its soil covers the floors of chapels, “Do You Believe ney by a devotee in pursuance of a primarily religious
in Pilgrimage:
rocks collected from its ground are used as foun- Communitas,
objective.”4 Anthropologist Matthew Dillon sug-
dation stones for towns, and relics of those who Contestation gests that the pilgrim’s goal is not to visit a place
and Beyond” in
lived and died there are enshrined in the world’s Anthropological Theory of interest nor to satisfy a religious objective; rather,
(2002), 362
most visited sites. Despite this undeniable influ- what is at stake in pilgrimage is the very first
3
ence, this thesis strays away from such symbolic From the introduction act of detachment, of “paying a visit to a sacred
to the edited volume
toponymy or literal displacement of fragments, Contesting the Sacred: site outside the boundaries of one’s own physical
The Anthropology of
and opts instead to focus on the spatial transla- Christian Pilgrimage
environment.”5 Indeed, as in any ritual, a crucial
tion of Jerusalem in order to appropriate its sanc- (1991). Eade, John, aspect of the pilgrim’s journey is the disturbance
and Sallnow, Michael
tity. It considers issues of ritual, representation, J. (eds.), Contesting the caused to daily life: a break from ties of kinship
Sacred: The Anthropology
topography, and memory in order to explore how of Christian Pilgrimage
and domestic labour.6 By disengaging from these
the idea of Jerusalem has articulated the human (Eigene: Wipf & Stock, structures (and replacing one ritual for another),
1991),2-4
relationship with the sacred. Specifically, it focus- the pilgrim enters a state of anti-structure, becom-
4
Arafat, K. W.,
es on a particular praxis that has mobilised the Pausanias’ Greece:
ing a subject driven by a crystallised sense of
aura of the Holy City for millennia—pilgrimage. Ancient Artists purpose, intention, and orientation. This places
and Roman Rulers
Studying this phenomenon reveals that, despite (Cambridge: Cambridge the pilgrim as a stranger in his or her travels, true
University Press, 1996),
its temporal character, pilgrimage is a powerful 10 (my italics)
to the etymological origin of pilgrimage from the
vector that often destabilizes the civic, economic, 5 Latin peregrinus, or foreigner.
Dillon, Matthew,
and political conditions of the places that cross its Pilgrim and Pilgrimage During this phase—defined by Victor and
in Ancient Greece,
path. This means that while pilgrims move with a (New York and Oxford:
Edith Turner as liminal7—the pilgrim devel-
clear sense of religious orientation, their mental- Routledge, 1997), xviii ops a heightened mode of perception, as he or
(my italics)
ity is often hijacked by institutions of power that she becomes susceptible to new concepts and
6
Turner, Victor and
wish to exploit their subjectivity for their own Turner, Edith L.B.,
becomes accutely aware of the sensory details of
gain. The manipulation of spiritual will into spa- Image and Pilgrimage their surroundings. Due to this receptive inten-
in Christian Culture
tial form results in the production of structures, (New York: Columbia sity during the pilgrim’s liminal stage, the thesis
University Press,1978),
landscapes, and representations that I refer to as 13
places particular emphasis on the travelogues writ-
the Architecture of Pilgrimage. 7 ten by pilgrims on their journeys. A neologism
Victor and Edith
Before exploring the themes and case studies Turner define this of travel and monologue, a travelogue is a form
anti-structure condition
of this thesis, it is important to state the obvious: as Communitas: “a
of writing that is between a survey and a diary;
pilgrimage did not begin in Jerusalem; it is a phe- relational quality of full it implies being physcially on the journey while
unmediated communica-
nomenon that maintains continuity from antiq- tion, even communion, also claiming a particular agency of personal
between definite and
uity until today.1 Anthropologist Simon Coleman determine identities,
interpretation and representation. This travel-
argues that any attempt to define pilgrimage is which arise sponta- ogue is written within a particular timeframe
neously in all kinds of
futile, as the conditions that influence its char- groups, situations, and in a pilgrim’s life, what Turner defines as being
circumstances [...] the
acter—namely systems of movement and modes distinction between
out of time— beyond or outside the time which
of spirituality—are perpetually in a state of flux.2 structure and commu- measures secular process and routine.”8 In From
nitas is not the same as
As such, pilgrimage spans fields of scholarship in that between secular and Ritual to Theatre (1982), Turner cites Arnold van
sacred, communitas is
which the discussion is often not about pilgrim- an essential and generic
Gennep’s Rites of Passage (1908) in defining the
age but rather about the lens through which it is human bond.” —Turner three phases of separation, transition and incor-
and Turner, Image and
understood: themes such as ritual and faith, sub- Pilgrimage in Christian poration. At the initial stage of separation, the
Culture, 250
jectivity and identity, historical geography and pilgrim is detached from daily life while entering
8
archaeology, and, in this thesis, the architecture Turner, Victor, From into “a new state or condition.”9 In the next stage,
Ritual to Theatre: The
and lanscape.3 Amongst the various attempts by Human Seriousness of the transition, the pilgrim enters an ambiguous
Play (New York: PAJ
theorists to define pilgrimage, there are several Publications, 1982), 24
stage of liminal nature where new social rules
similarities and contradictions that are relevant 9 and rituals can be assumed. It is during this
Ibid
for this discussion. The Oxford Dictionary provides phase, I argue, that pilgrims document their

INTRODUCTION— 07

journeys, and it is therefore that these narratives
transcend mere representation: they encapsulate
the liminality of the traveller who moves through
time and space as an inherent foreigner.
Travelogues play an important part in Van
Gennep’s third phase: incorporation. It is then
that pilgrims return to their “new, relatively sta-
ble, well-defined position in total society.”10 albeit
with the authority of their journey, which have
been documented in the travelouge which con-
tributes to their elevated status. Written during
a particular time (or “out of time,” as Turner
called it) in a pilgrim’s journey, these travelogues
are highly subjective in nature, often including
the projection of imaginary views over an actual
terrain. These descriptions are not only of cities
and monuments, but also of natural landscapes,
urban spaces, and the rituals of those encoun-
tered within them: in a word, the topography
of their journey. This topographic understand-
ing of their journey is crucial for the thesis: it is
understood as the spatial envelope of pilgrimage,
found in the scale between buildings and places.
Travelogues and their topographic reading are
thus a key in this thesis and the design project
because they not only expose the condition of
the pilgrim’s journey and places of worship but
also continually rebuild the history of pilgrim-
age through the symbolic possession and literal
appropriation of the land by its traveller.
MEMORY, SCRIPT,
AND PLACE
The history of pilgrimage is almost as fickle
as the phenomenon itself. Using the criteria that
pilgrimage includes a journey from one’s own
domestic realm into foreign territory, we can
conclude that its earliest possible origins would
coincide with the establishment of sedentary
locations of human settlement. In Mesopotamia,
a poem tells of the protective god of the city of Ur,
who journeyed 150 miles to visit another god, his
father Enlil.11 Pilgrimage in the first and second
millennium BC was often part of festivals that
included a mass movement of people, such as
the New Kingdom’s festival of Osiris in Abydos,
or the Hittite celebrations in Anatolia, which
revolved around the movement of the royal fam-
ily between sanctuaries.12
Beginning in antiquity, anthropologists
divide pilgrimage into typological categories:
devotional pilgrims, whose goal is to encounter
and honour a divine entity; instrumental pilgrims,
who hope to achieve a finite and palpable goal,
such as healing; mandatory pilgrims, who observe
cyclical patterns of life events; ethnic pilgrims,
who visit a mother deity; and initiation pilgrims,
who undergo a rite of passage in order to return
to the community as transformed members.13
Within this anthropological framework, scriptural
08
10
Ibid
11
Penglase, C., Greek pilgrimage—which is the focus of this thesis—is
Myths and Mesopotamia:
Parallels and influence
understood as travelling to the places mentioned
in the Homeric Hymns in a religious text.14 This category includes the
and Hesiod (London,
1994). In Elsner and three Abrahamic ‘religions of the book:’ Judaism,
Rutherford, Pilgrimage
in Graeco-Roman & Early
Christianity, and Islam.
Christian Antiquity, 10 Pilgrimage in Judaism was initiated by
12
Elsner and King Solomon, son of David, upon the erection of
Rutherford, Pilgrimage
in Graeco-Roman & Early
his Temple in 957 BC. This ritual included three
Christian Antiquity, 10 annual visits to Jerusalem, each marking both
13
Ibid, 12-28 a historical event of the Jewish faith and a new
14
Elsner and
agricultural season. Celebrations took place in
Rutherford, Pilgrimage and around Solomon’s Temple on Mount Moriah,
in Graeco-Roman & Early
Christian Antiquity, 28 which was constructed as a sequence of vestibules
15
Bright, John, A History
and chambers that created a processional hierar-
of Israel, (London: chy of profane and sacred enclosures. Due to its
Westminster John Knox
Press, 2000), 217-219 double role as the royal chapel for the Davidian
dynasty and as a global shrine for the entire
Israelite nation, it was attended by ordained
priests (Cohen or Levy) who performed prayers and
animal sacrifice. These massive gatherings may
have included symbols and codes that reflected a
pagan background, but nonetheless embodied a
monotheistic rationale. According to the Hebrew
Bible, these gatherings were mandatory: “Offer
a sacrifice to Me three times each year [...] every
male among you must appear before God the
Lord.” [Exodus 23:14-17]. A Jewish pilgrim partic-
ipating in these festivals became part of a large
group of worshippers, acting as a passive partici-
pant in public worship while fulfilling a religious
obligation.15
Pilgrimage in Islam is similar in that
respect. The Hajj (literally, to attend a journey)
is a mandatory rite that includes a single visit
to Mecca by every adult Muslim at least once in
their lifetime. As the birthplace of Muhammad,
Mecca is the house of the Kaaba, the “House of
God”, where a series of rituals (known as umrah)
take place, such as circling the shrine seven
times, kissing the black stone of the wall of the
Kaaba, running from the steps of al-Sada across
the valley to al-Marwah, and performing animal
sacrifice. Prayer was not initially directed towards
the Kaaba: in 610 AD, the prophet Muhammad
dictated that the first direction of prayer—the
Qibla—should be oriented towards Jerusalem;
only in 624 AD, shortly after his migration from
Mecca to Medina (Hijra), did the Qibla’s reference
point shift to Mecca. Indeed, the Quran does not
specify Mecca itself as a holy place but speaks
of an “ancient house” that is the destination of
Muslim pilgrims: “Announce to the people the
pilgrimage. They will come to you on foot and
on every camel, coming from every deep and dis-
tant highway that they may witness the benefits
and recollect the name of God [...] then let them
complete their rituals and perform their vows
and circumambulate the ancient house” [Quran
22:27–30]. Pilgrimage in Islam is thus based on
the ritualisation of script and place.
TOWARDS JERUSALEM
16
Petsalis-Diomidis,
Alexia, “The Body in
Christian pilgrimage is not dissimilar from Space: Visual Dynamics provides the opportunity to examine how the
in Graeco-Roman
the Jewish and Islamic traditions in its ritual- Healing Pilgrimage,” in
mentality of individual travellers shaped the
istic components. However, in stark difference, Pilgrimage in Graeco- architecture of the city as their own subjective
Roman & Early Christian
Christian pilgrimage is not mandated by religion: Antiquity: Seeing the reading of a Scriptural topography.
Gods, eds. Jan Elsner and
it is distinctively personal and resolutely volun- Ian Rutherford (Oxford:
The Christian canon (from Greek rule) of bib-
tary. Thus, early Christians who embarked on a Oxford University Press, lical scripture is composed of the Old and New
2005), 182-218
Scriptural journey to the land of the Bible were Testaments.17 Read in private contemplation and
17
The Old Testament,
not forced to by theological law; they did not also known as the Hebrew
in public sermons, scripture is a religious text
follow flocks of devotees on well-trodden paths, Bible, includes thir- that is interpreted allegorically through rituals,
ty-nine books that were
and they certainly were not rewarded by a clerical written by several au- deeds, and moral behaviour. Beyond this exegetic
thors over the centuries
institution. Their gain was personal, moral, and of the first millennium
practice, the Bible is also read literally as the
spiritual; it fed a religious curiosity, elevated their BC. Pentateuch, the first origin story of the its people; the narrative-led
of the three sections,
piety, and perhaps increased their devotional tells the origin stories of books such as Pentateuch, Prophets, and the
the world, humankind,
authority. In that sense, Christian pilgrims pres- Exodus, and God’s
four Gospels construct a pool of events, people,
ent a particular subjectivity whose agency lies in Covenant (including the and places that form the collective memories of the
Ten Commandments) to
its motivational currency. Indeed, anthropologist the Israelites: a monothe- religion. The term collective memory was coined
istic tribe worshipping an
Alan Morinis argues that pilgrimage is not about invisible and all-powerful
by the French philosopher Maurice Halbwachs
visiting a place that is venerated by institution- God. The Book of the (1877–1945) in his Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire
Prophets (including
alised religion, but “a journey undertaken by a Joshua, Judges, Samuel, (1925). According to Halbwachs, collective mem-
Jeremiah, and Kings,
person in quest of a place or state that he or she amongst others) narrates
ory is a social construct that operates within a
believes to embody a sacred ideal,” thus placing the history of the cultural framework. Collective memories are
Israelite tribes from their
the emphasis on the pilgrim’s personal decision conquest of the Promised shared by a group of individuals (a family, reli-
Land to their exile in
rather than a theological framework. It is for this Babylon, through the or-
gious community, or nation) who perceive their
reason that travelogues are crucial; each pilgrim deals of God’s messengers shared past as the basis for their identity in the
on earth as they struggle
does not move as part of a collective celebration to stir society away present. Unlike individual memories, collective
from the blasphemous
of people of faith, but rather as a single subject worship of deities. The
memories are not experienced by members of the
who opts out of their own daily routine in order Old Testament concludes group, but are rather constructed by institutions
with the Book of Writings,
to voluntarily enter this liminal stage. Their topo- which includes texts of through a careful process of selection and omis-
poetry and wisdom (most
graphic reading is thus crucial in light of their of which are attributed
sion of victories, traumas, resistance, and oppres-
initial expectations and motivations for the jour- to Kings David and sions. Halbwachs thus argues that those in power
Solomon) amongst them
ney. the Books of Proverbs constantly reshape collective memories in order
This personal aspect of Christian pilgrim- and Ecclesiastes which
consist of instruction on
to solidify the identity of their subordinates. In
age can be traced back to polytheistic cultures, life, spirit, and ethics. that sense, the events of the past are neither lost
The New Testament is
namely to Greek and Egyptian antiquity, where composed of twenty-sev- nor preserved, but recast into a memory that is
en books. Written in the
healing pilgrimage was common amongst indi- aftermath of Christ’s
“nourished and renewed, fortified and enriched,
viduals seeking to improve their physical condi- death in the first century, without losing any of its fidelity as long as the
it was formally canonised
tion. One of the most renowned therapeutic cen- only in the 390s of the society that supports it develops a continuous
common era. It consists
tres was the Asklepion of Pergamon, which was of the four Gospels
existence.”18
not a singular structure but a series of shrines, (Matthew, Mark, Luke Writing about Christianity, Halbwachs
and John) that narrate the
altars, rooms, and incubation chambers encased life of Jesus of Nazareth argues that the New Testament itself is a compo-
from birth in Bethlehem
within a rectangular peristyle.16 Within this through his life of preach-
sition of collective memories, since “the Gospels
courtyard, pilgrims would perform a healing rit- ing and miracle-working reproduce only a portion of the memories that
in the Galilee to his final
ual, moving according to a prescribed routine in crucifixion and resurrec- the disciples must have preserved concerning
tion in Jerusalem. The
order to summon the god and achieve spiritual, Acts of the Apostles form
the life of Jesus and the circumstances of his
hence physical, renewal. In that sense, Christian a chronological sequel to death.”19 The scriptures—both a religious text
the Gospels by narrating
pilgrims join a lineage of travellers who opt out of the activities >>> >>> and a historical narrative—are thus the collec-
of Christ’s disciples, and
daily life in order to reach a self-determined goal the various Epistles are
tion of memories from which Christians recollect
that is not mandated by their religion. letters written by the their shared past. Recollection, another critical
Apostles (mostly Paul) to
The evolution from pagan to monotheistic emerging communities of term for Halbwachs, is the ability of each indi-
Christians (such Rome,
pilgrimage is significant for this thesis in terms vidual to recall the shared memories of the group
Corinth and Galatia)
of the change in the type of destination. Pagan preaching the ministry as their own. This recollection can occur through
of Christ and providing
shrines such as Asklepion were contained within solutions for questions institutionalised rituals: the Eucharist, for exam-
regarding the rites and
a sacred enclosure, detached from the complex- ple, reminds the faithful of Christ’s Last Supper;
beliefs of the new faith.
ity and controversy of urban environments. The New Testament con- Easter Sunday commemorates the resurrection
cludes with the Book of
Meanwhile, the topography of monotheistic pil- Revelation: an apocalyp- of Jesus.This cyclical recollection unites the group
tic text that prophesies
grims is radically different: in Rome, Mecca or the Second Coming of
periodically through repetitive rituals that have
Jerusalem, scriptural pilgrims are confronted Jesus Christ. grown into the Christian calendar, providing
with territorial conflicts, socio-spatial hierar- 18
Halbwachs, Maurice, a system of recollection of memories that can
On Collective Memory,
chies, and contradicting histories. Focusing ed. and trans., Lewis
solidify the religion under a shared narrative.
on scriptural pilgrimage in Christianity thus A. Coser, (Chicago and
London: The University of
Chicago Press, 1992), 98
INTRODUCTION— 09

19
Halbwachs, On
Collective Memory, 196
through tangible recollection. Collective memory
20
Ibid, 222
and monuments thus go hand in hand: they are
21 Choay, Françoise, The used by those in power in a continuous process of
Invention of the Historic
Monument, trans. invention and localisation in order to assure the
Lauren M. O’Connell
(Cambridge: Cambridge
group’s unity and continuity. Their visibility and
University Press, 2001), affectivity provide proof that the past is not just a
6
series of ordinary events occurring in nondescript
22
Choay, The Invention
of the Historic
places, but meaningful spectacles that must be
Monument, 6 (my italics) celebrated and commemorated in physical form.
23
Ibid Scriptural pilgrimage in Christianity
can thus be defined as the travel to monuments
that commemorate biblical narratives, or collec-
tive memories. As a constellation of sacred sites,
these mnemonic markers demarcate a territory
that has come to be known as the Holy Land. This
sacred topography is composed of biblical cities
like Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Capernaum, and
natural sites such as the Jordan River, Mount
Tabor, or the Valley of Elah. The land was thus
Fig 1: Water from the Holy Land in Santo Stefano Church made holy as an accumulation of sites invested
in Bologna, known as the local Jerusalem.
Photo by the author, 2018 with scriptural affiliations. This is crucial for
this theis, since shrines such as those found in
Rome or Compostela, despite their religious sig-
nificance for Christian memory, are products of
However powerful these rituals are in fostering cults of relics and martyrs that developed after
the recollection of memory, Halbwachs argues the canonisation of the Bible, and are therefore
that in order to assure continuous recollection, excluded (in the context of this research) as sites
Halbwachs argues that to assure unity, “[a] society, of scriptural pilgrimage. Thus, this thesis’s focus
first of all, needs to find landmarks.”20 The tan- on Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem is neces-
gibility of Halbwachs’s landmarks brings us to the sary in order to explore the connection between
realm of the monument. It is here that this thesis script, memory, and architecture. As this thesis
wishes to explore the notion of collective memory will show, this connection has the power to dis-
not only through intangible means but through tort geographic realities and urban hierarchies
its spatial, architectural and topographical per- by channelling the movement of people, power,
formances. From the Latin monumentum (or monere, and capital. As such, the thesis wishes not only
to warn, to recall), a monument acts on the fac- to study the occurrence of monuments as nodes
ulty of memory by commemorating a past event of Christian pilgrimage but also to understand
in material form.21 French architect and histori- this phenomenon through a modern lens: that
an Françoise Choay defines monuments as “any is, their subjugation to the cult of heritage, where
artefact erected by a community of individuals to the past is being continuously exploited for eco-
commemorate or to recall for future generations nomic and political gain.
individuals, events, sacrifices, practices or be-
liefs.”22 The monument can thus bring the past
into the immediate present, attaching memory IMAGE AND PILGRIMAGE
to a person, event, or place on the terrain. Choay While script plays a crucial role in the history of
writes: Jerusalem pilgrimage, it nevertheless remains
subject to the regime of visual perception. Unlike
For those who erect it, as for those who receive its messag- the Jewish or Islamic religions, Christianity (par-
es, the monuments are a defense against the traumas of ticularly the Roman Latin Church) instrumental-
existence, a security measure. It is the guarantor of origins, ised religious art as the bridge between the visible
allaying anxieties inspired by the uncertainties of our and the invisible. Catholicism’s reliance on the
beginnings. Antidote to entropy, the dissolving action of agency of visual representations has been both
time on all things natural and artificial, it seeks to appease its strength and weakness: it allowed the Church
our fear of death and annihilation. The very essence of to expand its power amongst the illiterate crowds
the monument lies in its relationship to lived time and to of pre-Reform Europe, while after 1517 it led to
memory.23 recurring attacks and finally to the purge of those
images as symptoms of idolatrous worship. This
The memory that Choay describes is not a person- thesis studies the use of visual representation in
al tale nor an individual memory, but a construct- theological art and acknowledges its centrality to
ed political narrative that reassures the group the phenomenon of pilgrimage,
10 TOWARDS JERUSALEM
as it oscillates between the symbolic element
that is contingent on interpretation and religious
experience and an aesthetic sensibility that re-
lates to the joys of the senses. This tension will
return throughout the thesis by exploring not
only the iconographic and stylistic variation of
images and sculptures but also the ways in which
the visual was ritualised in order to facilitate the
transfer of Jerusalem’s typological, structural,
and topographical attributes beyond its physical
boundaries and onto other Jerusalems in Europe.
The chapters of this thesis unfold both
chronologically and thematically. Chapter One
begins with the birth of Christianity, exploring
how a religion that was essentially universal and
anti-world was territorialised in Constantine’s
Jerusalem of the fourth century. In a series of
monuments and landmarks, Christian memories
were localised across the sacred topography of the
city and were consequently ritualised by proces-
sions of clergy and pilgrims who cited scriptural
verses over historic sites in order to recall Christ’s
final days of sacrifice. This public character of
worship in Jerusalem encapsulated the triumph
of Christianity over paganism after centuries
of persecution, and heralded a golden age for
Jerusalem pilgrims that would come to an end in
the seventh century with the Islamic conquest of
the city. It was at that point that Christians in the
West began to erect adaptations of Jerusalem’s
sanctity and authority through local altars, struc-
tures, and landscapes, which became pilgrimage
sites for those who could not access the city in
the East. These other Jerusalems were built by
instrumentalising analogical thinking, a concept
theorised in Chapter Two by analysing the way in
which Jerusalem’s most holy place, the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre, was spatially abstracted into
its distinct features: a basilica and a rotunda. This
architectural coupling was then abstrcated, dis-
placed and reconstructed in Europe as analogous
Jerusalems, a new site which cou not only facil-
itate particular rituals which were indigenous
to Jerusalem’s liturgy but have also spatialised
the tension which is found in pilgrimage and in
christiniaty at large.
While the second chapter explores how par-
ticular structures facilitated flexible practices of
recollection, Chapter Three focuses on a single
ritual: the Stations of the Cross. Based on the
Passion, the Via Crucis is an episodic progression
of Christ’s path from trial to crucifixion and final
resurrection. Since the geopolitical conditions
of late medieval Jerusalem prohibited pilgrims
from tracing Christ’s actual Via Dolorosa (literally,
way of suffering) in the city, the Stations of the
Cross were instead deployed in European cit-
ies, churches, and religious complexes, where
they could be ritualised thanks to their incred-
ible affinity for theatricality. Direct, detailed,
INTRODUCTION—
24
Nagel, Alexander,
Medieval Modern: Art
out of Time (London:
Thames & Hudson,
and incredibly affective, these theatres of the
2012), 100 Passion caused suspicion amongst the critics
of the Catholic Church during the Protestant
Reformation, which resulted in the neutralisa-
tion, restraint, and codification of the stations
into a legible path that opted for devotional clar-
ity over theatrical narrativity.
While the translation of Jerusalem into
structures, spaces, and landscapes in Europe was
far from innocent, it nevertheless marked an
incredible moment in the history of architecture:
a time when place mattered less and content
meant more, and when mnemonic flexibility
triumphed over site specificity. These transla-
tions were explored in chapters two and three,
showcasing how other Jerusalems captured the
idea of being Towards the holy city, manifesting
a topographic orientation into spatial and urban
form. However, these translations could only last
so long as Jerusalem itself remained a distant
memory—so long as its symbolic image was not
confronted with its physical condition. Once wars
were waged on its sacred territory, it became
clear that “even Jerusalem is only a shadow of the
heavenly Jerusalem,” in the words of Alexander
Nagel.24 Since the real Jerusalem could not rival
its own image, it had to be adapted to facilitate
the rituals enacted in its analogous surrogates.
In other words, the movement towards the city
of Jerusalem was not one-sided, but reversed
direction throughout history in a series of spa-
tial manipulations of the Holy City itself, in light
of its projections in the West. As this thesis will
show, this form of appropriation was inevitably
violent; it superimposed a spatial order developed
in a predominantly Christian society on a city
that maintained its own multi-layered religious
practices for centuries.
The simplification of Jerusalem’s com-
plexity in favour of a single Christological order
will be explored in Chapter Four. Beginning in
the mid-nineteenth century, this ‘soft Crusade’
was led by two new types of pilgrims: surveyors,
who sought to locate the biblical truth within the
ground and abstract the topography of the Holy
Land through the regime of property, and tourists,
who were led to consume the city’s holy sites as
attractions. These new pilgrims transformed
Jerusalem into an archipelago of landmarks
where historic monuments are valorised (literally
‘enhanced’) for maximum productivity and prof-
itability within the heritage industry. It is here
that the thesis brings together issues of sacred
topography and pilgrimage in order to formulate
a critique of collective memory.
As a counter-project to the valorisa-
tion of Jerusalem, the thesis concludes with the
design project: a photographic travelogue that
constructs an alternative Via Crucis. Using pho-
tographs undertaken throughout this thesis
11
 25
The photographers
were Robert Adams,
in sites of Jerusalem pilgrimage, it imagines a Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Travelling to the places written about in this the-
Hilla Becher, Joe Deal,
topography that embodies the notion of being Frank Gohlke, Nicholas
sis— in particular, the Jerusalems outside Jerusa-
towards Jerusalem: documenting the enduring Nixon, John Schott, lem that are described in chapters two and three,
Stephen Shore, and
power of the holy city to attract pilgrims not only Henry Wessel. the author became a pilgrim. Using my camera to
to its physical entity but also to locations where 26
In the context of
study the very same places that were historically
its identity has been displaced and celebrated the New Topographics analysed throughout the chapters, I became a
exhibition, Lewis Baltz
as an idea that is larger than the city itself. This presented a series surveyor that reconstructs a place through text,
of head-on shots of
travelogue disregards geographical trajectories warehouse facades,
mapping, and photography. The topographic
and opts, instead, to move from station to station surrounded by scaleless method requires physical presence; indeed, like a
parking lots and
through means of association and imagination. corporate landscaping. travelogue, one cannot describe the terrain unfold
Found in new develop-
By constructing this travelogue, the photogra- ments outside the cities
without experiencing it first-hand.
pher becomes a designer of a new spatial entity; of Southern California, Photography is the ultimate medium to
these generic structures
a topographical path with a clear orientation that were captured in a express the topographic approach. It gives agency
stylistic manner that
provides an alternative to physical travel through was equally uninforma-
to the camera, as held by an architect, to define
the possibility of analogous journeys. tive, thus aestheticizing the topography of pilgrimage as that which is
the banality of this
industrial landscape defined not only by monuments, but also by their
by finding beauty in
its bleak commonality.
humble surroundings: the paths, signage, and
TOPOGRAPHY AND Stephen Shore, the only markers on the ground that lead pilgrims in their
TOPOGRAPHICS colour photographer in
the exhibition, depicted journey. Figure and ground are thus blurred as the
street spaces of everyday
As a practice of actual movement through space, America: parked cars,
liminal perception of the traveller blends everyday
pilgrimage could not be understood merely as the floating shop signs, objects with those of the sacred realm. The photos
and dangling wires with
intermittent fulfilment of the monument, but the search for “the quint- show the monuments of pilgrimage—from ana-
essential Main Street.”
rather as the continuous sensation of topography. Robert Adams presented
logical structures in European capitals to humble
Topography, (literally ‘place description’) is under- twenty photographs of chapels staged in local iterations of the Via-Crucis
the suburban devel-
stood here as the three-dimensional formation of opment of the plains and even to those in Jerusalem itself—set within
of Colorado, unifying
the terrain (including both natural and artificial both landscapes—the
the generic landscapes of their surroundings, jux-
elements) that articulates the cultural and the god-made and the taposing monuments built by large institutions
“man-altered” under
natural. Topography is also fundamental to the the same Southwestern with the additions and objects placed by people
light. — Oral history
experience of travel; it is perpetually redefined interview with Robert
of faith. As such, these photos have the power to
by the movement and perception of those who Adams, 2010 July 20, obfuscate the inherent monumentality of these
Archives of American
cross it; their projections, imaginations, and Art, Smithsonian places of worship and see them as a part of the
Institution; Stephen
representations construct its surface and define Shore to Hilla Becher,
continuous topography of pilgrimage, not differ-
its contours. As such, the topographic reading of in “A Conversation with ent from markers, paths, homes, and passers-by. Fig 4: Entry court to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem.
Stephen Shore'', Susanne
pilgrimage can be understood as the methodolog- Lange and Stephen This interpretation of topography is derived Photo by the author, 2020
Shore, Bernd und Hilla
ical approach of this dissertation: the construc- Becher, Festschrift,
from a photography exhibition that took place in
country that maintains
tion and reconstruction of topography through Erasmuspreis 2002 upstate New York in 1975. Entitled New Topographics: an almost mystical
but also through the carving of religious beliefs.
(Munich: Schirmer/
surveys of places of worship. This topographical Mosel, 2002) For a Photographs of Man-Altered Landscape, the exhibition By adopting the ‘indifferent’ attitude of Baltz, Ad- belief in the sanctity of Pilgrims—myself amongst them— do not simply
further analysis of the free enterprise and the
understanding was not only used as the primary works presented in
included the works of ten photographers who ams, and Shore, the photographs are my attempt ultimate good of private cross landscapes; they fabricate topographies
profit. That both the
material of this dissertation—as can be seen in the New Topographics redefined landscape as the generic, manmade to downplay the monumentality of Jerusalem and beliefs and the people
through peripatetic rituals that redefine the
exhibition and a
chapters one and four which rely on travelogues critical reading of the environment that sprawled along the highways to break through its spiritual envelope. As a result are blind is shown by three-dimensional surface of the earth. The pil-
relationship between this documentation of
as primary materials— but also as the method of photography and the
of post-war America.25 Aspiring for an objective of four years of fieldwork, these images illustrate the destruction of the grim’s journey is thus directed by a topographic
country's landscape and
inquiry itself. built environment in representation of the world, the New Topographics the written chapters and comprise the design history. And that the
perception of architecture, landscapes, and rep-
the 1960s and 70s:
Salvesen, Britt (ed.), preferred the banal over the heroic, showcasing a project of this dissertation. Adopting the tem- results are less than resentations, resisting the contained spaces that
New Topographics: practical is proved by
Photographs of a Man-
visual attitude that was purposefully unsentimen- porality and liminality of the on-the-road pho- the waste and loss of the are delineated by organised structures of power.
country's irretrievable
Altered Landscape (Steidl tal: deadpan, mid-tone, and non-hierarchical in tographers, these photographs encapsulate both natural and architectur-
The notion of sacred topography is further
publishing, 2003);
Cambell, Mark, Paradise terms of focus and composition, the topographic a physical terrain and a mental state, where real al heritage.”(The New discussed in Medieval Modern: Art out of Time (2012),
Lost, (AA Publications, York Times, January 12,
2016)
images portraying the world in its own clumsy and imaginary elements construct the sacred to- 1964, Section BR, Page where Alexander Nagel asserts that the transpor-
7). It is this landscape
27
existence.26 Rather than the figurative mode pography of my own pilgrimage.29 Thus, this PhD that fascinated New
tation of Jerusalem’s relics (both defined objects
A New York Times
Book review from 1964 of photojournalism, New Topographics photogra- by-design considers this topographic survey as a Topographics photogra- and formless earth taken from the city) to Rome
explains the elements phers; their work tried
that constitute the
phers such as Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore, and project, following the genealogy of architect-his- to redeem its place as generated a fluid territory, where one inhabits a
an inevitable part of
“Junkyard:” “Man can Robert Adams blurred figure and ground, giving torians such as Denise Scott Brown and Françoise society’s evolution, not
space that is “both grounded and not grounded in
ruin anything, and does.
The shining country amnesty to billboards, suburbia, motels, and gas Choay who have used photography to observe the its demise. real earthly territory.”30 This geographical detach-
that stretched from sea
to sea, the skies, the
stations—a spectacular vernacular landscape that built and devise a design methodology through 28
A key influence in the ment from both Jerusalem and Rome creates the
perception of suburban
plains, the woods, the was nothing like the chaotic, mutilated, man-ru- image-making. The resulted images are then America as a vernacular
possibility of being neither here nor there, an
spacious fields, are now
defaced and mutilated ined terrain described by Peter Blake in God’s Own both the illustration of the historic component of landscape is geographer effect he calls “topographical destabilisation.” The
— a babel of billboards, John Brinckerhoff (JB)
auto graveyards, googie
Junkyard (1964).27 Their mission was not to create the dissertation and the photographic travelouge Jackson. He founded possibility of bringing Jerusalem to Rome reveals
the journey Landscape
architecture and subdi- visual evidence of man’s destruction of a country, that concludes it. By creating this body of work, in 1951, arguing in
the true character of both cities, and confirms
vision devastation; all
the appurtenances and as Blake called it, but to document a moment in this thesis will demonstrate that topography is the inaugural issue “the deeper philosophical convection that earthly
excrescences of pros- that “Wherever we go,
perity, the population
history without casting a moral judgment on its manipulated not only by designation, enclosure, whatever the nature of places are themselves only distributions within
our work, we adorn the
Fig 3: Stephen Shore, Holden Street, North Adams, explosion and the good merit.28 urbanisation, and agricultural improvement, face of the earth with
the spatial dimension, a dimension, like that of
Massachusetts, July 13, 1974 life. It has been >>>
amputated by express- a living design which
way and slaughtered changes and is eventu-
12 by suburban sprawl
[...] It is addressed to a
TOWARDS JERUSALEM INTRODUCTION— ally replaced by that of a
future generation. How
13
people whose philosophy can one tire of looking
is pragmatism and a at this variety, or of
 marveling at the forces & Phillips, 2002); with
within man and nature John Joyce Hill, Jerusalem
that brought it about?” Pilgrimage, 1099–1185
time, that is no more than a fluttering veil from Jackson encouraged his into the appropriation of Jerusalem’s charisma in only a European invention of an exotic other, (London: Routledge 1999) has been the focus of spatial battles since its very
readers to observe the
a metaphysical perspective.”31 Nagel’s conviction utilitarian surroundings
the West. Entitled Selling Jerusalem: Relics, Replicas, but also a method of asserting dominance over 39
Wilkinson, John,
foundation in the second millennium BC. Within
regarding the flexibility of geographical affili- as a cultural landscape Theme Parks (2006), Wharton’s book draws a line the East by describing it through a Western eye. Egeria’s Travels (Oxford: this context, the current condition is but another
that is worth scholarly Oxford Books, 1999)
ations suggests that topographic detachment attention, and find the from the medieval collection of relics to today’s Said’s assertion will accompany this research, re-enactment of the wars waged by those in
40
appeal of the everyday Wilkinson, John,
might actually bring forth a truer version of the objects that later
Holy Land theme parks, revealing how the sym- which includes dozens of immediate impressions Jerusalem as Jesus
power over the sacred spaces cherished by people
original, one distilled from the excess profanities became the subject of bolic value of the holy city has been abstracted, of Western travellers to the Holy Land, demon- Knew It: Archaeology of faith. Thus, in Jerusalem, we find the tension
the New Topographics as Evidence (London:
of reality. photographers: motels, commodified, and exploited for its metaphorical strating how travelogues reveal the connection Thames and Hudson, between the genuine beliefs of religious subjects
mobile homes, and gas 1978)
Alongside Nagel, three scholars are nota- stations. — Jackson, J.
power. Her assertion that the British transforma- between imperialism, valorisation, and architec- and the desire of institutions to exploit these sen-
41
ble for discussing the translation of Jerusalem B., "The Need of Being tion of Jerusalem in the twentieth century was a tural appropriation.44 Kark, Ruth and timents. In other words, this thesis places today’s
Versed in Country Oren-Nordheim,
in the West: Bianca Kühnel, Robert Ousterhout, Things," Landscape l, form of ‘Disneyfication’ is particularly polemic, As for the transformations of Jerusalem by Michal, Jerusalem and condition in the larger context by showing that
no. I (Spring 1951): I. Its Environs: Quarters,
and Anabel Wharton. A historian of medieval quoted in Salvesen, New
and largely informed the fourth chapter of this the British Mandate, this thesis relied on a wealth Neighbourhoods, Villages,
the current conflict in Jerusalem is yet another
art, Kühnel pioneered the investigation into Topographics, 20 dissertation.35 On this topic, geographers Kobi of primary sources, such as the proceedings of 1800–1948 (Detroit: manifestation of the way in which bodies of
Wayne State University
Jerusalem’s translations in the West. She edited 29
This mentality is Cohen-Hattab and Noam Shoval’s Tourism, Religion the Pro Jerusalem Society, the diaries of Governor Press‬, 2001); _Kark, power—who control the infrastructure of rituals
influenced by Jack Ruth, “Agricultural
the essay ontologies The Real and Ideal Jerusalem in Kerouac’s novel On
and Pilgrimage in Jerusalem (2017)36 explores the ritu- Ronald Storrs and Charles Robert Ashbee, and Land in Palestine. Letters
and faith—could manipulate people’s spirituality
Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art (1998)32 and Visual the Road (1957) and als (both secular and religious) performed by vis- the plans (both written and drawn) published to Sir Moses Montefiore, into political gain.
the French Nouveau 1839” in Jewish
Constructs of Jerusalem (2014), exploring the way roman (new novel) that itors to Jerusalem, a phenomenon better under- by Henry Kendall, Patrick Geddes, and William Historical Studies Vol. One of the major themes in this thesis is
chronicled the mundane 29 (1982-1986), 207-230.
details of the world.
stood through the reading of The Tourist Gaze (2011) McLean.45 While this period in the history of _Ben Arieh, Yehoshua,
collective memory. It follows the theory put forth
30
by John Urry and Jonas Larsson.37 Jerusalem has been widely researched, what is Jerusalem in the 19th by Halbwachs, while attempting to bring forth
Nagel, Medieval Century: The Old City
Modern, 100-101 The work of Reverend John Donald Wilkin- novel to this thesis is the consideration of these (Jerusalem and New York: a critical reading of the ways in which memory
Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi and St.
31
Ibid
son (1929–2018) provided much of the primary plans as a landscape project, a hypothesis supported Martin's Press, 1984);
was spatialised. Studying the memorialisation of
32
research material for this thesis with his trans- by the influential theories of Denis Cosgrove and Ben Arieh, Yehoshua, Jerusalem’s urban space reveals that the heritage
Kühnel, Bianca (ed.), Jerusalem in the 19th
The Real and Ideal lations of texts written by Jerusalem pilgrims W.J.T. Mitchell regarding the human perception Century: Emergence of project is fraught with artificial constructions,
Jerusalem in Jewish, the New City (Jerusalem
Christian and Islamic
before the eleventh century.38 In particular, his and manipulation of the natural world.46 A piv- and New York: Yad Izhak
national aspirations, and a selective reading of
Art; Studies in Honor translations and analyses of the itinerary of the otal figure in the study of Palestinian landscapes Ben-Zvi and St. Martin's history that writes-out the existence of those
of Bezalel Narkiss on Press, 1986); Lemire,
the Occasion of His pilgrim from Bordeaux and the letters of the is Gary Fields, whose Enclosure (2017) informed not Vincent, Jerusalem 1900: who are excluded from it. This thesis thus prob-
Seventieth Birthday The Holy City in the Age
(Jerusalem: Hebrew
Spanish nun Egeria (published in 1971 as Egeria’s only the study of the Ottoman Land Code in the of Possibilities, trans.
lematises collective memory in this city not
University, 1998); Travels to the Holy Land) were an invaluable source nineteenth century, but also the mechanisms by Catherine Tihanyi and only by analysing the initial theory put forth by
Kühnel, Noga-Banai, and Lys Ann Weiss (Chicago:
Vorholt, Hanna, Visual for the first chapter.39 As a priest working for which the rhetoric of agricultural ‘improvement’ University of Chicago Halbwachs, but also by challenging Aldo Rossi’s
Constructs of Jerusalem: Press, 2017). Moscrop,
Cultural Encounters in
the British School of Archaeology, Wilkinson served the advancement of colonial forces on the John James, Measuring
“The Architecture of the City” (1966). Rossi writes
Late Antiquity and the published Jerusalem as Jesus Knew It: Archaeology as ground, a gradual process of abstraction of land Jerusalem: The Palestine that “the city itself is the collective memory of
Middle Ages (Turnhout: Exploration Fund and
Brepols, 2014) Evidence (1978),40 a reconstruction of the Holy City and exclusion of entire populations from their British Interests in the its people,” arguing that collective memory is in
Holy Land (Leicester:
33
Bartal, Renana and
during the first century AD composed of archae- productive territory.47 Leicester University
fact a collection of people memories of places and
Vorholt, Hanna, Between ological evidence and self-drawn maps and plans Indeed, the violence of urban and rural Press, 2000) objects within the city.”51 As this thesis will show,
Jerusalem and Europe:
Essays in Honour of of Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem, which have transformations has been a major issue in studies 42
Pullen, Wendy, Rossi misread Halbwachs’ notion: collective
Bianca Kühnel (Leiden: Sternberg, Maximilian,
Brill, 2015)
been used for much of the drawings produced for of Jerusalem in recent decades. Eyal Weizman’s Dumper, Michael, Craig
memory is not composed of individual memories
34
this dissertation. Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation (2007) Larkin, (eds), The that act collectively to shape the urban realm—
Ousterhout, Robert, Struggle for Jerusalem’s
“Architecture as Relic While research on the first chapters of this draws a line between the nation-building efforts Holy Places (Routledge, but is constructed and designed from above by
and the Construction 2013)
of Sanctity: The Stones
thesis was largely dependent on archaeologists, of Israel and the British project in Jerusalem, institutions in order to foster a shared identity
43
of the Holy Sepulchre,” theologists, and art historians, the final chapter exploring the agency of building materials See complete list of within a certain group. Rossi idealises the idea of
in Journal of the nineteenth century travel
Society of Architectural discusses topics that have been widely studied by (such as the use of the so-called Jerusalem writings used in the collective memory as a peaceful agglomeration
Fig 5: Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Cambridge
Historians, Vol. 62, No. thesis in the appendix to
Photo by the author, 2019
1 (Mar., 2003), 4-23;
architecture scholars. Ruth Kark and Yehoshua stone) in perpetuating an ongoing spatial injus- the bibliography.
of civic sentiments, when in fact it is a distorted
“Flexible Topography Ben-Arieh have written extensively in Hebrew tice towards Palestinians.48 Daniel Monk’s An 44
reading of the past—a selective history that is
and Transportable Said, Edward,
Jerusalem has been replicated in monuments, Geography,” in The Real on the geopolitical transformation of Jerusalem Aesthetic Occupation: The Immediacy of Architecture and Orientalism (New York: then inserted back into the city’s monuments,
and Ideal Jerusalem Vintage Books, 1978)
maps, and visual representations around the in Jewish, 393-404;
in the nineteenth century, alongside French the Palestine Conflict (2002) traces the relationship Culture and Imperialism
where it makes tangible a single, often exclusion-
world, including both tangible elements such as “The Church of Santo historian Vincent Lemire, who authored the between historical monuments and political (London: Chatto & ary, narrative.
Stefano: A ‘Jerusalem’ Windus, 1993)
relics and mnemonic replication of structures. In in Bologna” in Gesta, rich volume Jerusalem 1900: The Holy City in the Age conflicts from the time of the British Mandate Rossi’s seminal book had an incredible
45
Vol. 20, No. 2 (The Ashbee, Charles
2015, Between Jerusalem and Europe was published University of Chicago
of Possibilities (2017) and John Moscrop’s Measuring of Palestine, and argues that architecture serves Robert, Jerusalem, 1918-
influence on the profession in the following
in honour of Kühnel, continuing the explora- Press, 1981), 311-321; Jerusalem: The Palestine Exploration Fund and British to naturalise territorial disputes.49 Weizman 1920, Being the Records decades: until today, we witness architects who
“‘Sweetly Refreshed of the Pro-Jerusalem
tion into the appropriation of Jerusalem in spe- in Imagination’: Interests in the Holy Land (2000).41 Wendy Pullen’s and Monk, alongside notable architects such as council during the period romanticise the possibility of evoking collective
Remembering Jerusalem of the British military
cific case studies across Europe.33 This volume in Words and Images,”
The Struggle for Jerusalem’s Holy Places (2013) Zvi Efrat, Rafi Segal, and Malkit Shoshan, have administration (London:
memories through their design, without real-
included the work of Robert Ousterhout, whose in Gesta, Vol. 48, No. 2 studies the current conflict in Jerusalem’s holy created frameworks through which students Murray, 1921); Geddes, ising the conflictual formation of such senti-
(2009), 153-168. Patrick, Jerusalem
research paid special attention to the spatial places in light of its contested history, going as of the Middle Eastern conflict can understand Actual and Possible, a ments. The thesis thus problematises the notion
35
Wharton, Annabel, preliminary report to the
transfer of Jerusalem’s holy sites. His conceptu- Selling Jerusalem
far back as the city’s first settlements.42 the tangled relationship between Zionism and chief administrator of
of memory and the way it has been instrumen-
alisation of flexible topographies, as well as his (Chicago: University of First-hand knowledge of Jerusalem during the occupation of Palestine in terms of the pro- Palestine and the Military talised by not only political forces but also eco-
Chicago Press, 2006) Governor of Jerusalem
visual and theological analysis of the Church those years was drawn from the primary source duction of space and manipulation of the land.50 on Town planning and nomic ones, as historic monuments have been
36
Cohen-Hattab, Kobi Improvements, file Z4/
of Santo Stefano in Bologna, informed my own and Shoval, Noam,
of pilgrim’s travelogues to the Holy Land, a genre However, their studies extend only as far back 10.202 (1919), 18-19,
valorised to maximise their profitability. In
understanding of the concept of analogical think- Tourism, Religion and briefly discussed above, which will be problema- as the nineteenth century. This thesis wishes Central Zionist Archives, that sense, it updates Choay’s Invention of the
Pilgrimage in Jerusalem Jerusalem; Kendall,
ing in architecture.34 Anabel Wharton, while not (Oxford and New York: tised for its patrimonial sentiment later in this instead to challenge the notion that the source of Henry, Jerusalem: The Historic Monument by acknowledging that the
Routledge, 2015) City Plan, Preservation
part of the collections edited by Kühnel, never- thesis.43 In that regard, it is revealing to consider the current conflict is the Western infiltration of and Development during
valorisation of historic monuments is a process
37
theless wrote the most meaningful investigation Urry, John and ​Larsen, Edward Said’s assertion that Orientalism is not Palestine in the 1800s by arguing that Jerusalem the British Mandate of not only increasing visibility and legibility but
Jonas, The Tourist Gaze 1918–1948 (London: Her
3.0​(London: Sage, Majesty’s Stationery
2011) Office, 1948)
14 38
Wilkinson, John,
TOWARDS JERUSALEM INTRODUCTION—
46
Mitchell, W.J.T, ed.,
15
Jerusalem Pilgrims Landscape and Power
Before the Crusades (Aris (University of >>>
 Chicago Press, 2002);
Cosgrove, Denis E.,
Social formation and
also generating surplus value. Rossi’s book, writ- the Symbolic Landscape,
(Wisconsin, The
ten before the rise of UNESCO and the heritage University of Wisconsin
industry, could not have predicted the ultimate Press, 1984)

commodification of what he described as “certain 47

Fields, Gary, Enclosure:
Palestinian Landscapes
artefacts [that] become part of [the city’s] memory in a Historical Mirror
[…] in this entirely positive sense great ideas flow (Oakland: University of
California Press, 2017)
through the history of the city and give shape to
48
Weizman, Eyal, Hollow
it.”52 Indeed, these memories within the city have Land (London and New
been enclosed, enhanced, and as this thesis will York: Verso, 2007)

show - have turned into an asset under the cult 49

Monk, Daniel
Bertrand, An Aesthetic
of heritage which has seen exponential growth Occupation: The
in the last three decades. This commodification immediacy of Architecture
and the Palestine Conflict
distorts the phenomenon of spiritual travel and (Durham: Duke University
Press, 2002)
blurs the distinction between a pilgrim and a
50
touris; this economic aspect of collective memory Efrat, Zvi, The Object of
Zionism: The Architecture
will be scrutinised in this thesis for exploiting of Israel (Leipzig: Spector
Books, 2018); Shoshan,
cultural and religious values for the creation and Malkit Atlas of Conflict:
circulation of capital. Israel-Palestine (2010);
Segal, Rafi and Weizman,
Once this legacy of corruption is confronted, Eyal, ed., A Civilian
Occupation – The politics
the thesis will attempt to reclaim the enchant- of Israeli Architecture,
ment initially found in pilgrimage by proposing (London: Verso, 2003);
Segal, Rafi and Weizman,
alternative methods of devotion that could be Eyal, and Franke, Anslem,
ed., Territories – Islands,
enacted in flexible topographies through the Camps and other States
combination of text, image, memory, and imag- of Utopia, (Berlin:
KW – Institute for
ination. Using photography as a design tool to Contemporary Art, 2003)
create an alternative travelogue, a new type of 51
Rossi, Aldo, The
pilgrimage can emerge where the effect of ‘desta- Architecture of the City,
(First published as
bilising topography’ described above could be L’architettura della Citta,
1966) eds.Peter Eisenman
balanced by the stabilising quality of rituals, and and Kenneth Frampton,
where memory could be reclaimed in a personal, trans. Diane Ghirardo
and Joan Ockman
rather than collective, sense. Arguably, the effect (Camrbdige: MIT Press,
1982), 130
of ‘destabilising topography’ described above can
52
only be balanced by the stabilising quality of ritu- Ibid Fig 6: Easter Friday procession at the “New Jerusalem” in Varallo, Italy.
als. In the words of Antoine Saint-Exupery, rituals 53
Quoted in Han, Byung-
Photo by the author, 2019
Chul, The Disappearance
are “temporal techniques of making oneself at of Ritual (2009)
home in the world.”53 Like things in space, rituals
offer structure, sameness, and repetition; they
allow one to create distance or even estrange-
ment from themselves. Be they physical or men-
tal, still or peripatetic, speaking or silent, this
thesis will thus try to untangle the rituals of pil-
grimage from its ties to power in order to reclaim
it as an act of liberty, of movement through space
and time, progressing towards a destination that
may never fully arrive, but nevertheless declares
an orientation to life itself.

16 TOWARDS JERUSALEM INTRODUCTION— 17

 C H AP T E R ON E

THE INVENTION OF
THE HOLY LAND
PILGRIMAGE AND THE CHRISTIAN
APPROPRIATION OF JERUSALEM century, hundreds of thousands of Jews arrived
in Jerusalem to visit the new altar built upon the
The earliest traces of human settlements in 1
Montefiore, Simon exposed bedrock of Mount Moriah, in the heart of
Sebag, Jerusalem, the
Jerusalem date to 5000 BC. A Canaanite village, Biography (London: Herod’s vast man-made plateau.
perched on the Judean Mountains above the Gi- Weidenfeld & Nicolson, This fortified city, with its monumental
2012).
hon spring, far from any strategic trade-route, temple, was not only the bastion of Jewish tra-
2
According to clay
it was populated mostly by graves.1 By the nine- inscriptions found in dition—it was also the city of Christ. Born in
teenth century BC, Jerusalem was a substantial Egypt—the Amarna Bethlehem, a small village on the outskirts of
Letters—which were
city-state, its name first recorded as “Urusalim”, discovered in the late Jerusalem, and raised in Nazareth, Jesus attended
nineteenth century.
perhaps after Salam or Shalom (“peace” in Arabic the Passover festivities in Jerusalem every year.5
3
or Hebrew).2 Over the next centuries, Jerusalem David extended and After 30 AD, Jesus triumphantly returned to
fortified the existing
experienced recurring attacks from the New Citadel of Zion; its Jerusalem for what were to be his final days; the
remnants are currently
Kingdom of Egypt to the south and Assyria to the unearthed in what is the city’s streets and the Jewish Temple formed the
north, which encouraged Jerusalemites to build world's most excavated backdrop for the Passion—Christ’s trial, crucifix-
archaeological site, the
their city as a citadel of steep fortification, ter- City of David. The exis- ion, entombment, and resurrection—and thus
tence of a Jewish king
raced housing, and intricate tunnels. However, it named David was con- became inseparable from any Christian ritual of
was not until King David captured the stronghold firmed in archeological recollection. This heavenly city of both the Jewish
digs in Tel Dan in 1993,
in 1000 BC that Jerusalem was established as a when an inscription Temple and Christ presented a unity between
from the 9th century BC
capital city. This was also the beginning of the named kings from “the the ideal and the real for close to a century. In
city’s spiritual significance as the centre of the House of David.” 70 AD, after years of siege, the Roman Emperor
Hebrews, a uniquely monotheistic tribe that had 4
“To offer a sacrifice Titus captured the city and destroyed the temple,
to Me three times each
arrived centuries earlier from Mesopotamia.3 year.” (Exodus 23:14–17) demolished houses, and burned most of the city’s
David’s son, King Solomon, built the First 5 trees.6 In that decisive moment, Holy Jerusalem
“Now his parents
(Jewish) Temple on top of Mount Moriah— went to Jerusalem every was dispatched from its earthly corollary, which
year at the feast of the
believed to be the biblical site where the Hebrew passover.” [Luke 2:41]; now lay in ruins and chaos.
patriarch Abraham nearly sacrificed his only “And the Jews’ passover For the next six decades, Jerusalem was
was at hand, and Jesus
son, Isaac—thus commemorating the site as went up to Jerusalem.” reduced to a camp of the tenth Roman Legion
[John 2:13]
one of unconditional devotion. Built over seven (legio X Fretensis), and Jews and Nazarenes (a minor
6
years, the shrine at the centre of Temple Mount In Rome, the victory Palestinian sect that gradually separated from
procession carrying the
housed “The Holy of the Holies”—the wooden Ark of the Covenant was Judaism) were forbidden to live on its site, under
commemorated in the
Ark of the Covenant. According to the Book of Arch of Titus, where it is the penalty of death.7 This urban vacuum gave
Exodus of the Hebrew Bible, pilgrimage to the still visible. rise to paganism. In 135 AD, following the defeat
Temple was mandatory for all Jews three times 7
Duchesne, Histoire of yet another Jewish revolt, Emperor Hadrian
ancienne de l'eglise
a year, corresponding to the agricultural calen- 1:122, in Halbwachs, On changed the city’s name to Aelia Capitolina, after
dar.4 This ritual came to a halt in 587 BC when Collective Memory, 226 his own last name of Aelius and the Roman god
the city was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, King 8
Hunt, E.D, Holy Land Jupiter Capitolinus.8 Hadrian’s city was smaller than
Pilgrimage in the Late
of Babylon, who executed King Zedekiah, burned Roman Empire (Oxford: the one built by the Arab-Jewish King Herod only
down Solomon’s Temple, and exiled the Hebrews. Clarendon Press, 1982): a century earlier, and held little religious or polit-
Introduction
In Babylon, the Israelites formed the Biblical ical significance within the Roman empire.9 As a
9
Hunt, Holy Land
scriptures, solidified the religion, and awaited Pilgrimage, 1 pagan emperor, Hadrian obliterated the remains
their redemptive day of return—and indeed, of monotheism in the city by transforming the
in 516 BC, the Second Temple was inaugurated ruins of the Jewish Temple into the Capitolium
on the ruins of Solomon’s first. This temple, by covering the supposed burial place of Christ.
which was modest in scale and decoration, was While the primary goal of the Jews was to return
entirely remodelled in the first century BC by the and rebuild the physical city below, the nascent
half-Jewish, half-Arab Roman King Herod, who Christian religion ascribed increasing religious
executed a megalomaniacal construction project and symbolic significant to the Jerusalem above
that continues to dominate the topography of the as the city of an idea.
Old City of Jerusalem until today. Over the next

CHAPTER ONE— The Invention of the Holy Land 19

 27
10 The Eucharist, for
Mann, Micahel, The example, is a sacrament
Source of Social Power, that evokes Christ’s Last
Contrary to the hopes of Christ’s prosecu- (Cambridge: Cambridge on Sundays to read scripture (often out loud), While the Gospels paint a picture of Christ’s Supper in Jerusalem,
places of worship in Jerusalem, but also rebuild
University Press, 1986),
tors, the crucifixion of the charismatic leader 317
initiate new converts into the faith through entire life in the Galilee, the recollection of in order to recollect the the story of the city as it changed from a pagan
scriptural verse and thus
from Nazareth did not put an end to his messi- 11
baptism, and perform the ceremonial breaking collective memories focus on his last days in remember his ultimate colony to a Christian capital.
Chadwick, Henry, The sacrifice. Halbwachs, On
anic fervour. Christ’s promise of a moral order Early Church (London: of bread and wine, commonly known as thanks- Jerusalem.27 This didactic focus on Christ’s heroic Collective Memory, 212
Penguin; Revised
within a politically troubled region endured edition, 1993), 9
giving, Eucharistia, or the Eucharist.20 Reading and sacrifice (rather than his life with the disciples or 28
Bowman, Christian
among his followers (not to mention his proof of 12
the authority of the written word were crucial to his miracles) would eventually make Jerusalem ideology and the image of
divinity through the many accounts of the resur-
Alikin, Valeriy A.,
The Earliest History of the expansion of the Church, allowing a steady the principal site for these memories to be local- the holy land, 6
“AT A STONE’S THROW AWAY”:
rection), who began to spread his message across the Christian Gathering:
Origin, Development and
flow of messages regarding the life of Christians. ised and spatialised. By the fourth century, the 29
Halbwachs, On THE SCRIPTURAL
Collective Memory,
the land.10 The first Christians did not see them- Content of the Christian Questions of good and evil, life and death, order Scriptures had morphed from allegory into his- 222-223 GEOGRAPHY OF THE PILGRIM
selves as breaking with the Jewish tradition; they
Gathering in the First to
Third Centuries (Leiden: and chaos, sacred and profane—these funda- tory, and now presented the Gospels as a literal 30
Hebrews 11:1
FROM BORDEAUX
Brill, 2010), 17
were merely a sect who believed in the same God mental issues were articulated in the letters that account of events that happened to Christ as a 31
The earliest record of Christian pilgrimage
13 Mann, The Source of
and the Covenant He had delivered to Moses.11 Ibid, 77 circulated between the churches, which were man (not just a god), who lived in a real Jerusalem Social Power, 338 to the Holy Land was written by an anonymous
This continuity was apparent in the sect’s ritu- 14
Chadwick, The Early read aloud in Sunday gatherings. Literacy was on earth.28 According to Halbwachs, when col- 32
The latest record of
traveller from Bordeaux in 333 AD.35 Visiting
Church, 16
als, beginning in 50 AD, which included a weekly thus a critical factor in the expansion of the early lective memories are projected onto a physical a persecuted Christian Palestine only two decades after the legalisation
15 martyr in Palestine was
gathering for the reading of scripture.12 These Ibid Church, creating an alternative channel of com- site, it becomes a landmark.29 While this material in 310 AD. - Hunt, Holy of Christianity, he was probably the last traveller
Land Pilgrimage, 1
meetings were a hybrid of the Jewish custom of 16
Mann, The Source of munication which functioned as an unconfined specificity may seem to contradict St. Paul’s to describe Jerusalem and the Holy Land before
Social Power, 302 33
the Sabbath meal and the culture of brotherhood infrastructure for the spread of Christian theol- “conviction of things not seen,”30 the localisation Bowman, Christian the dedication of Constantine’s churches and
17 Ideology and the Image of
and solidarity typical of Graeco-Roman clubs and Bowman, Glenn W., ogy.21 of memories was the conclusion of a process of the Holy Land, 8-9 the transformation of the city into a Christian
Christian ideology and
associations.13 These meetings, which included a the image of a holy land: In addition to the reading of the prescriptive institutionalisation in Christianity, whose grow- 34
Eade, John, and
spiritual centre.36 Acknowledging that he may
the place of Jerusalem
meal and symposium, were held in private homes pilgrimage in the various
letters of the Apostles (and their successors, the ing spiritual power was translated into control Sallnow, Michael J. be the first of many travellers to the Holy Land,
(eds.), Contesting the
on Sunday, rather than the Saturday of the Jewish Christianities (2013), 4 Apostolic Fathers), weekly gatherings included over people and resources, and thus had to take Sacred: The Anthropology he wrote the Itinerarium Burdigalense, a detailed
of Christian Pilgrimage
Sabbath. 18
Fredriksen, Paula, the Old Testament Book of Prophets, which physical form.31 (Champaign: Illinois
roadmap for the benefit of future Christian pil-
“The Holy City in
The new faith expanded rapidly throughout Christian Thought” in
chronicles the conquests and defeats of the The localisation of memory was made University Press, 1991), grims.37 Travelling as an independent Roman
8
the Roman Empire, beyond Jerusalem and into City of the Great King: Israelites in Judea, as well as the memories of the possible in 312 AD, when Emperor Constantine citizen across a secular imperial infrastructure,
Jerusalem from David 35
Wilkinson, John,
Judea, finally reaching Damascus and Antioch to the Present ed Nitza apostles known as the Gospels, which narrated attributed his military victory to the God of the Egeria’s Travels (Oxford:
he succeeds in redefining pagan Palestine as the
Rosovsky (Cambridge,
(in today’s Syria), where the adherents were nick- MA and London: Harvard
the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in Christians (Jehovah rather than Jesus), effectively Oxford Books, 1999), 22 Christian Holy Land and the peripheral Aelia
named “Christians” by the local pagans.14 The University Press, 1996), Jerusalem.22 Read in succession week after week, legalising a religion that had been persecuted 36
Ibid, 7 Capitolina as the spiritual focal point of the
100-101
Jerusalem Synagogue responded to this dramatic these texts not only gave instructions to the for centuries.32 As the ruler of an infinitely-ex- 37
Leyerle, Blake,
Western world: the New Jerusalem.38
19
Chadwick, The Early
growth by sending a strong Jewish author- Church, 19
faithful on leading a moral life, but also consti- pandable community, Constantine had the “Landscape as Textually, Itinerarium Burdigalense can be
Cartography in Early
ity to Damascus to counter this movement. 20
tuted the founding narrative of the religion, thus ability to direct his economic powers to the East Christian Pilgrimage roughly divided into two parts. The first part
Alikin, The Earliest Narratives,” in Journal
Unfortunately, this mission failed when he was History of the Christian forming the pool of collective memories of the and commemorate scriptural sites (preferably of the American Academy
follows his journey across the cursus publicus, an
Gathering, 9; Mann, The
confronted mid-route with the risen Christ. As Source of Social Power,
Christian religion. Names of people, places, and on top of pagan shrines).33 This monumental of Religion, Vol. 64, No. 1 imperial road system for Roman messengers.39
(Spring, 1996), 125
a convert to Christianity, Saul of Tarsus (or Paul) 319 natural elements were allegorised in the minds of project not only brought glory to Christianity During this part of the journey, his observations
38
Elsner, Jaś,
would eventually become the faith’s most import- 21
Mann, The Source of the faithful and recollected within an intangible (and Constantine himself), but soon established “The Itinerarium
are limited to the precise distances between his
Social Power, 317
ant figure after Christ.15 Paul began his missionary celestial realm, accessible from one’s own mind. Jerusalem as a tangible destination for Jerusalem Burdigalense: Politics resting stops, where he would change horses in
22 and Salvation in
activities by spreading the faith through ambitious “And on the day called Thus, collective memories were strategically pilgrims to congregate, pray, and recollect the the Geography of mutationes or enjoy overnight lodging in mansiones
Sunday, all who live in Constantine's Empire”
excursions and the writing of letters. His mes- cities or in the country uprooted and deterritorialised away from the real life of Christ. Christian scriptural pilgrimage in The Journal of Roman
(a typology of roadside inns built as a shelter
gather together to one
sage was simple, clear, and direct: anyone could place, and the memoirs
Jerusalem, which was now used as a symbol in could now be practised by retracing Christ’s own Studies, Vol. 90 (2000), around an enclosed courtyard, similar to a cara-
195
enter the coming kingdom of God, provided they of the apostles or the sermons and prayers to facilitate recollection and salvation, moving between the places where he vanserai).40 As he approaches the Holy Land, the
writings of the prophets 39
The Roman
believed in him. This sense of catholicity (or ‘uni- are read, as long as time give a clear orientation. walked, preached, and suffered, as the journey Empire’s history with
text begins to include names of locations from
permits; then, when
versality’) was radically egalitarian, with no dis- the reader has ceased,
In contrast, the earthly Jerusalem—asso- developed in time, space, and text.34 Jerusalem has created the collective memory of a scriptural pilgrim,
an infrastructure that
tinctions of class, gender or ethnicity.16 This moral the president verbally ciated with the Jewish enslavement to material Text, indeed, is crucial here. It was the rai- would later be used by such as the hometown of Paul the Apostle or
instructs, and exhorts pilgrims: a network of
code set Christianity apart from its genealogical to the imitation of these sacrifice and geographic specificity—was deemed son d’etre of early Christian pilgrims, who were communication that was
Mount Carmel, where “Elijah did his sacrifice”.41
good things. (Just., 1
ancestor: Judaism was an inherently territorial Apol. 67.3.)
inferior to the possibility of unbound ritual free- guided by scripture and later recorded their per- ready to link the fourth This list-format of locations, which included dis-
century christian jerusa-
and tribal religion, formed through blood relations 23
dom.23 Christianity’s relocation into the spiritual sonal experiences in writing for the benefit of lem to the main routes of tances, topographical markers, and a scriptural
Fredriksen, The the empire.. Hunt, Holy
and collective celebrations, whereas Christianity Holy City in Christian domain was strategic: as an illegal cult operating future travellers. Unlike their Jewish and pagan Land Pilgrimage, 53-54
affiliation, employed the dry tone of a land sur-
Thought, 77
was an inclusive religion, open to all who opted in within a pagan Roman empire, separation from predecessors, these pilgrims were distinguished 40
veyor, a style that would probably be familiar to
24 Wilkinson, Egeria’s
and were willing to undertake an individual com- Smith, To Take Place: land was required for the expansion of the reli- by their inherent subjectivity and outlook on the Travels, 23 his future readers from the pragmatic Greek and
Toward Theory in Ritual
mitment.17 As such, in Christianity, we witness a (Chicago: University of gion.24 Indeed, early Christianity did not grow journey. To better understand this phenomenon, 41
Itinerarium
Latin itinerarium genre.42 Using this familiar and
Chicago Press, 1987),
shift from the terrestrial finite to celestial eternity, 77; Hunt, Holy Land
through forced territorial conquests, nor by two travel writings of fourth-century Christian Burdigalense, 583 authoritative literary technique, the pilgrim is
from collective fate to individual faith.18 Pilgrimage, 115 subjecting nations to its control (at least not at pilgrims will be explored below: the Itinerary of 42
Leyerle, Landscape as able to superimpose a scriptural topography mat-
Cartography, 125
In Paul’s missionary travels between the 25
Bowman, Christian first). It was a diffuse form of power that spread the Pilgrim from Bordeaux (333 AD) and the let- ter-of-factly upon the landscape.
Ideology and the Image of 43
urban centres of Palestine and Asia Minor, his the Holy Land, 6
throughout all social strata, mobilising its mem- ters of the Spanish nun Egeria (381 AD). These two “I continue your The Bordeaux traveller was able to refer to
proposal and set forth
appeals to convert were addressed not only to 26
bers to submit to an ethical code and a set of subjects travelled with a clear orientation towards the names of the cities indigenous site names thanks to the Onomasticon
In the third century and villages mentioned
Jews but also uncircumcised Gentiles.19 With this members of the church shared memories. In the words of anthropologist Jerusalem and described their journeys in detailed in the Sacred Scriptures
(“On the Place-Names in the Holy Scripture”) by
were encouraged to
emancipation from the Jewish roots, Christianity perform bodily gestures
Glenn Bowman, Christian exile was “enabling representations, which will be explored in this in their native language, Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea, from the early
of what sort of territory
was ever-expandable and could reach as far as and postures. Kneeling rather than alienating”;25 its readings gave rise chapter as the lens through which we can observe they were, and whether 320s. This directory consisted of a list of scriptural
expresses humility our contemporaries
the capital of the empire—Rome. Mixed Jewish- and penance, standing to an imagined topography, which manifested how the city was constructed in and around their call them by the same
site names translated from the original Aramaic
assumed joy and confi-
Gentile communities proliferated in urban cen- dence. Prayer was often
during prayers as an orientation to the east— journeys. By studying their subjective landscapes, name as the ancients or into Greek.43 Eusebius managed to locate a con-
otherwise.”– preface by
tres across the Mediterranean; they would gather performed standing, and towards Jerusalem.26 we can not only understand the conditions of the Eusebius of Pamphilia, temporary location for about a third of these
facing the east. — Alikin, Bishop of Caesare,
The Earliest History of Onomasticon (On the
the Christian Gathering,
20 251 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER ONE—
Place-Names in the Holy
Scripture), ca. 320 AD, The Invention of the Holy Land 21
trans. C. Umhau Wolf
(1971)
 44 53
The Itinerarium Wilkinson, Egeria’s
Burdigalense includes Travels, 10
fifty-three locations:
thirty-two from the
Jews come and anoint each year. They mourn and rend 54
Elsner, The Itinerarium
Temple Mount and towards an entire territory of
sites, thus creating a useful index for the scrip- Old Testament and The Itinerarium is a very specific guidebook that their garments and then depart.51 Burdigalense, 193 sacred sites.54
Twenty-one from the
tural enthusiasts of the Roman province. The New Testament, giving provides idiosyncratic knowledge about the Holy 55
Itinerarium The Bordeaux Pilgrim visits several of these
roughly equal impor- Burdigalense, 595
Bordeaux traveller’s account shared some sim- tance to the Jewish
Land for Christian pilgrimage and the localisa- While archaeologically inaccurate,52 the text nev- sites, including a basilica on Mount Olives “where
56
ilarities with the directory, namely the subordi- and Christian canons. tion of memory. It chronicles no more nor less ertheless paints a picture of Jerusalem as a city Ibid, 595-560 the Lord went up to pray”;55 the rock tomb “in
— Leyerle, Landscape as
nation of a place to text and the mythologisation Cartography, 123 than the places where scripture and place coin- undergoing ideological and theological transfor- 57
Eusebius of Pamphilia, which laid Lazarus, whom the Lord Raised”; an
The Life of the Blessed
of Palestine’s geography. However, in contrast 45
Itinerarium
cide, from notable sites to seemingly mundane mation. For the first time since 70 AD, Jews were Emperor Constantine,
“exceptionally beautiful basilica” in Abraham’s
to the alphabetical order of the Onomasticon, the Burdigalense, 587-588 natural elements that are infused with theo- allowed back into the city thanks to Constantine’s 306-337 AD, trans. Ernest city, Terebinthus; and the Basilica in Bethlehem,
Cushing Richardson
novelty of the Itinerarium was its linear character: 46
Halbwachs, On logical meaning. The plane trees he saw were decision from 324.53 For him, Jewish Jerusalem (Aeterna Press, 2015), where Christ was born.56 Many of these sites were
Collective Memory, chapter XLII
the pilgrim from Bordeaux lists the sites in order 222-223
planted by Jacob; a rock he described in a vine- was no longer a threat; much like the pagan built by Constantine’s mother, Empress Helena,
of geographic encounter, thus becoming a useful 47
yard marks the site of Judas’s betrayal of Jesus; a Aelia, it was now part of the past. Indeed, Jeru- who is also believed to have discovered Christ’s
Itinerarium
tool for future travellers. Burdigalense, 588.5, palm tree is the same one “from which children salem was about to be transformed by a series of True Cross.57 Constantine’s biographer wrote that
594.7, 595.2
Once the pilgrim passes Caesarea (the cap- took branches and strewed them in Christ’s monuments that would shift the centre of gravity Helena’s journey to Palestine was one “to the
48
ital of the Roman Province of Judea) the initial Leyerle, Landscape as path.”47 Places relating to Christ’s life as a man, away from the palimpsest of the old Jerusalem on ground which the Saviour’s feet had trodden”,
Cartography, 124
brevity of the Itinerarium gives way to an elaborate however, had yet to be infused with a redemptive
49
Hunt, Holy Land
guidebook, which uses affective language to con- Pilgrimage, 7
narrative, and were therefore omitted from the
jure up scriptural memories in greater detail:44 50
journey—or from its representation. Capernaum
Itinerarium
Burdigalense, 590 and Nazareth, located only a day’s trip from his
... A mile from there is the place called Sychar, where the 51
Ibid, 590-591
route, were ignored.48 The Itinerarium projected a
Samaritan woman went down to draw water, at the very 52
system of belief that was developed outside the
The ruins he saw
place where Jacob drew the well, and our lord Jesus Christ were of Herod’s Second Holy Land and thus was concerned only with the
Temple, not of the first
spoke with her. Some plane trees are there, planted by one, built by Solomon;
particular events recollected in Western services.
Jacob, and there is a baptistery which takes its water from Zacharias was a Hebrew In the Holy City, the Bordeaux Pilgrim bore
prophet from the Old
the well.45 Testament, not father witness to the invention of Christian Jerusalem.
of John the Baptist; and
one of the two statues
This transformation was achieved through a
This intricate account, which begins with a pre- depicted Hadrian’s large-scale construction project launched in the
successor, Antoninus.
cise distance to direct future pilgrims, interlocks —Wilkinson, Egeria’s aftermath of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD,
Travels, 30; Irshai,
biblical toponymy (Sychar) with the new baptis- Oded, “The Christian
when Constantine summoned the Empire’s bish- 12
tery erected by the Church to initiate believers Appropriation of ops (a recorded total of 318 attendees) to discuss
Jerusalem in the Fourth 4
into the faith. The references to the tangible Century: The Case of the unification of the Christian doctrine and the
the Bordeaux Pilgrim,”
remains of the past—the well’s connections both in The Jewish Quarterly
celebration of Easter. As an emerging institution,
to the Samaritan woman who met Christ [John Review, Vol. 99, No. 4 Christianity was in need of newly-erected mon-
(2009) 11
4:5-6] and to Jacob, the Hebrew patriarch—form uments where its members’ recollections could
a seamless transition between the Jewish and be staged. Following a recommendation from
Christian canons. This not only implies an ac- Macarius, the bishop of Jerusalem, Constantine
2
ceptance of the genealogy of monotheistic faith ordered the construction of a series of churches 1
in the land, but also reveals the reliance of the in Palestine to commemorate the events of the 3

Christian framework of localisation on existing Passion, death, and resurrection.49 5

Jewish traditions. Maurice Halbwachs explains Less than a decade after the Council, these
6
that, in this manner, Christian collective mem- recently established monuments would appear
ory could ‘annex’ its Jewish counterpart by ap- in the Bordeaux Pilgrim’s increasingly elaborate
propriating its localisation; in the process, new descriptions. He enters Jerusalem from the East
7
memories would be elevated over the old ones, Gate and proceeds west along a walled street
gradually changing the perception and forms of towards the Temple Mount, thus tracing the path
recollection of a sacred space.46 of Jewish pilgrims before 70 AD. He describes the
enormous labour that went into its construc- 8
tion, the architectural remnants of the great
9
vaults “where Solomon used to torture demons”,
and the subterranean chambers of Solomon’s
former palace “where he was when he wrote of
Wisdom.”50 When he reaches the epicentre of the
Temple Mount plateau, where the shrine used
to stand, he describes the residues of both Pagan
and Jewish presence:

And in the sanctuary itself, where the Temple stood which

Fig 1: Above: Constantine’s Church of Eleona on Olive Mount
Below: Constantine’s Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
Drawing by John Wilkinson
Solomon built there is marble in front of the altar which
has on it the blood of Zacharias—you would think it had
only been shed today [...] two statues of Hadrian stand
Fig 2: Jerusalem during the Constantinian conversion, drawing by the author
there. And, not far from them, a pierced stone which the (1)‭ ‬Theodosius Monastery (2)‭ ‬Church of St‭. ‬Georgios (3)‭ ‬Holy Sepulchre (4)‭ ‬Gate of the Column (5)‭ ‬Temple Mount (6)‭ Forum
(7‭) ‬Monastic ‬cells (8)‭ ‬Church of St‭. ‬James (9)‭ ‬Nea Church (10‭) ‬Monastery of St‭. ‬Peter (11)‭Gethsemane (12)‭ ‬Olive Mount

22 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER ONE— The Invention of the Holy Land 23


as part of an official delegation to survey “the
Eastern provinces, cities, and people, with a truly
imperial solicitude.”58 This hybrid of religion
and power portrays the gradual absorption of
Christianity by the Empire, as well as the empow-
erment of foreign visitors to dramatically alter
the conditions of prayer in Jerusalem. In the fol-
lowing decades, additional churches were erected
in and around the Holy City to commemorate
a growing number of sites: the Basilica of the
Apostles on Mount Zion, the Chapel of St. James
(352 AD), the Martyrium of John the Baptist on the
Mount of Olives (363 AD), an octagonal church on
the site of the Ascension, and a church in mem-
ory of the Agony (358 AD).59 But the epicentre of
this wide construction project was undoubtedly
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the most
spatially complex and theologically charged site
of them all, was created to commemorate Christ’s
crucifixion and resurrection, the dogmatic events
of the Christian religion. Although these events
had an inherently spatial dimension in reli-
gious recollection, they were not readily visible
as material traces or artifacts in fourth-century
Jerusalem; therefore, a site for their localisation
had to be found by no other than Constantine
himself.60 This is elaborated on in Eusebius’ Vita
Constantini, a glorifying biography of Constantine
written in the immediate aftermath of his death
in 337 AD.61 Eusebius writes that Constantine:
[J]udged it incumbent on him to render the blessed locality
of our Saviour’s resurrection an object of attraction and
veneration to all. He issued immediate injunctions, there-
fore, for the erection in that spot of a house of prayer: and
this he did, not on the mere natural impulse of his own
mind, but being moved in spirit by the Saviour himself.62
Eusebius, who witnessed Christianity’s triumph
over prosecution, infused the emperor and his
actions in Jerusalem with divine qualities. To re-
Fig 3: Eusebius’ description of the church on Golgotha
Drawing by the author, after John Wilkinson
24
58
Eusebius, The Life
of the Blessed Emperor
Constantine, Chapter
XLII
59
Halbwachs, On
Collective Memory, 225
60
Ibid, 230
61
Eusebius, The Life
of the Blessed Emperor
Constantine, Chapter
XXV
62
Ibid, Chapter XXV
63
Eusebius also
describes how the
earth that was removed
from the ground was
perceived as “polluted
soil” and was sent as far
from the city. — Eusebius
The Life of the Blessed
Emperor Constantine,
Chapter XXVI
64
Ibid, Chapter XXVIII
65
Ibid, Chapter XXVIII
66
“It will be well, there-
fore, for your sagacity to
make such arrangements
and provision of all
things needful for the
work, that not only the
church itself as a whole
may surpass all others
whatsoever in beauty,
but that the details of
the building may be of
such a kind that the
fairest structures in
any city of the empire
may be excelled by this”
— Eusebius, The Life
of the Blessed Emperor
Constantine, Chapter
XLXXXI
instate Jerusalem as a Christian capital, remains
of Paganism had to be eradicated. Roughly two
centuries after Hadrian constructed a shrine
for Venus on Christ’s grave, as Eusebius writes,
Constantine demolished “the dwelling-places of
error, with the statues and the evil spirits which
they represented.”63 The next step was the recov-
ery of the tomb itself:
[A]s soon as the original surface of the ground, beneath the
covering of earth, appeared, immediately, and contrary to
all expectation, the venerable and hollowed monument of
our Saviour’s resurrection was discovered.64
The reappearance of Christ’s empty grave from
the depths of the earth signalled the dawn of the
New Jerusalem from above.65 While the accuracy
of Eusebius’s description is debatable, its political
implications for Jerusalem were undeniable: the
recovery of Christ’s empty tomb was tangible
proof of his resurrection (and would remain un-
challenged until the late nineteenth century, as
will be explored in chapter four). Jerusalem was
destined to become the spiritual capital of the
Roman Empire, and funds began to flow into the
city from all directions. In a letter to Macarius,
bishop of Jerusalem, Constantine delivered pre-
cise instructions for the erection of the world’s
most beautiful church, and designated infinite
amounts of marble, gold, and labourers for the
completion of the task.66
The Bordeaux Pilgrim visited the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre ten years after the Council
of Nicaea (and two years before the official ded-
ication of the edifice). He describes the church’s
multiple localities:
On your left is the hillock Golgotha where the Lord was
crucified, and about a stone’s throw away from it the vault
where they laid his body, and he rose again on the third
day. By order of Emperor Constantine there has now been
built there a ‘basilica’—I mean a ‘place for the lord’—
TOWARDS JERUSALEM
67
Itinerarium
Burdigalense, 594
which has beside it cisterns of remarkable beauty, and 68
Eusebius, The Life
of Christian holy sites spread across the city of
beside them a baptistery where children are baptized.67 of the Blessed Emperor Jerusalem. From the text of the Bordeaux Pilgrim,
Constantine, Chapter
XXXVII we learn that the initial movement between
This description of the early phase of the erection 69
Hunt, Holy Land
Golgotha and the Sepulchre, at “a stone’s throw
of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre conveys the Pilgrimage, 20 away”, extends into a wider territory of historical
juxtaposition of two historical locations, cou- 70
Eusebius, The Life Jerusalem, which would soon become the stage
of the Blessed Emperor
pled with liturgical vessels, such as the basilica Constantine, Chapter XL
for a public ritual invented by the local liturgy
(an adapted pagan structure that became the 71
and celebrated within the urban realm. The
Hunt, Holy Land
typological blueprint for Christian churches, as Pilgrimage, 10 details of this intricate ritual are best described
will be discussed in the following chapter) and 72
Smith, To Take Place,
in the letters of Egeria.
a baptistry, where new members were initiated 77;Hunt, Holy Land
Pilgrimage, 25
into the faith (the Rotunda had yet to be erect-
73
Ibid, 8
ed over Christ’s tomb). Eusebius’s text describes
it in great detail: from the north-south axis of 74
Egeria’s name and “IT MAKES FAR TOO MUCH
origin in Galicia are not
Aelia’s cardo, the church’s layout extends towards certain, yet according TO REMEMBER”:
the west. First, a propylaea entryway, composed of to historians, it is
most likely the case.
EGERIA’S PRESCRIPTION OF
three highly ornate, east-facing gates, designed — Wilkinson, Egeria’s THE JERUSALEM LITURGY
Travels, 1
to attract passers-by and welcome a ‘multitude’68 Fifty years after the pilgrimage of the traveller
75
Sivan, Hagith, “Holy
of visitors; next, an inner courtyard, or atrium, Land Pilgrimage and
from Bordeaux, the Spanish nun Egeria arrived in
large enough to host a great amount of pilgrims;69 Western Audiences: Jerusalem.74 She spent three years in the city(381–
Some Reflections on
then the Golgotha ‘basilica’ (known later as the Egeria and Her Circle”, 384 AD) and recorded her experience in a series
The Classical Quarterly
Martyrium), where congregations could gather in 38, no. 2 (1988): 528–535
of enthusiastic letters addressed to her ‘sisters’, a
the central nave of 22 metres long, complete with 76
community of Christian believers back home in
Only about a third to
marble floors and gilded ceiling; further on, an a half of the original text Galicia.75 The original contents of her letters, as
is left. - Smith, To Take
additional open-air courtyard, enclosed by colon- Place, 88
reconstructed from a damaged eleventh-cen-
naded porticos on three sides, where the altar on 77
tury manuscript, reveal in detail the formation
Valerius, a sev-
the hill of the crucifixion was cleared and exposed enth-century monk, of a Christian calendar through the rituals per-
wrote of Egeria: “she
to its bedrock; and finally, 130 metres from the sought healing for her
formed by the Jerusalem liturgy across the city’s
street, the focal point of the complex—the tomb, own soul [and] she gave holy sites.76 As a Roman citizen in pursuit of her
to us an example of
surrounded by twelve columns (after the apos- following god which is soul’s salvation, Egeria would become a model for
marvellously profitable
tles), and furnished, according to Eusebius, with for many…” - Wilkinson,
Jerusalem pilgrims in the centuries to come, and
“gold, silver, and precious stones.”70 The space Jerusalem Pilgrims, her comprehensive descriptions were distilled
(1971), 174-5
around the Sepulchre was initially designed as an into replicable rituals that could spread across
78
Sivan, Holy Land
open-air courtyard, and remained in this form at Pilgrimage and Western
the Christian world, catalysing the diffusion of
the time of the Bordeaux Pilgrim’s visit; however, Audiences: Some Jerusalem back to the West.77
Reflections on Egeria and
it was soon enclosed and covered by a rotunda, Her Circle, 528 Egeria’s letters, according to what is left of
and renamed the Church of the Anastasis. 79
Hunt, Holy Land
them, begin in the Sinai Desert on her way to
In 335 AD, three years before the death of Pilgrimage, 62 Jerusalem. Much like the Itinerarium Burdigalense,
Constantine, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre her text can be divided into two segments: her
was consecrated.71 The dedication—a hybrid days of private wandering in the desert, where she
manifestation of political and religious power— records her scriptural pilgrimage in an affection-
was attended by bishops from all over the east- ate first-person voice, and her years in Jerusalem,
ern province of the Empire, travelling at the which are recorded as a third-person account of
state’s expense as official leaders of the Christian her participation in the local liturgical services.78
empire.72 Christian pilgrimage had finally found Egeria’s letters reflect the changes that had taken
a terrestrial destination; the gathering of the place in the Roman Empire since its Christian
bishops from across the Roman provinces fore- conversion: whereas the Bordeaux Pilgrim trav-
told what would be perpetually re-enacted in elled across an administrative infrastructure and
the next millennium by pilgrims from the whole lodged in roadside inns, Egeria was welcomed
world. While the only depiction of this event and by monks in the desert, heirs to the tradition of
its magnitude comes from Eusebius, a biased offering hospitality to foreigners. Their welcom-
observer, the historian David Hunt argues that ing generosity was a source of comfort amidst
this historical account, as imaginative and sub- the challenge of a prolonged estrangement from
jective as it may be, portrays the excitement that home, which was an integral component of
accompanied the erection of this building, and Christian pilgrimage.79
its potential to lure future pilgrims.73 Indeed, In her search for collective memories, Egeria
with the erection of numerous monuments in was also assisted by these same ‘holy men’—either
Jerusalem, pilgrimage was about to explode in Roman citizens-cum-monks who had with-
popularity. Weaving together existing locations drawn from the crumbling Empire or Egyptians
of memory and newly established ones, a system who had pulled away from the state—who had
CHAPTER ONE— The Invention of the Holy Land 25

received particular knowledge through oral tra-
dition. As Egeria explains, “I asked about it [a holy
site] and the holy men replied, ‘Holy Moses was
buried here [...] our predecessors here pointed this
place to us, and now we point it to you. They told
us that this tradition came from their predeces-
sors.’”80 With the help of her guides and a Bible in
hand, Egeria meanders across Sinai in the follow-
ing biblical localities:
All the way I kept asking to see the different places men-
tioned in the Bible, and they were all pointed out to me
by the Holy Men [...] some of the places were to the right
and others to the left of our route, some a long way off and
others close by.81
Throughout the text, Egeria’s tone remains some-
what conversational and highly descriptive, often
echoing lines from scripture.82 Like the pilgrim
from Bordeaux, Egeria’s gaze hardly ever wanders
beyond the biblical realm, and her representation
omits any topographical details that could not be
directly ascribed to scripture.83 This resulted in a
compendium of desert locations that lacked an
institutional system of commemoration, a little
more than a cluster of generic features in a bar-
ren desert. However, they were made memorable
by the words of her guides, who could affiliate the
landscape with historical events.84 This becomes
evident when she traces the footsteps of the Isra-
elites during the Exodus:
Fig 4: Places of pilgrimage in fourth-century Palestine
Drawing by John Wilkinson
26
80 88
Egeria, 7.2 Sivan, Holy Land
Pilgrimage and Western
81
Ibid Audiences: 529
scriptural recollections in Christian communities Jerusalem’s liturgical structure in detail: the
82 89
Wilkinson, Egeria’s far from the holy places.88 In this passage, Egeria Bowman, Christian bishop was the father of the church; the presby-
Travels, 2 ideology and the image
explains that the combination of land and text are of the Holy Land, 13, ters read from the scriptures and preached to the
83
Bowman, Christian and Wilkinson, Egeria’s
ideology and the image of
crucial for the Christian faith because neither is Travels, 109
crowd, prayed, and recited psalms; the deacons
the Holy Land 11 legible on its own. Egeria’s pilgrimage exemplifies 90
took part in the prayers but did not preach; and
Egeria, 3.4
84
Historian Blake how text and place come together to foster an in the clericus assisted with baptism.95 During the
91
Leyerle claims that Ibid, 3.5 - 4.3 (my
Egeria’s descriptions
situ recollection of Christian memories, similar to italics)
services, as each figure carried out their specific
are so frequent, that what took place in services in her home church.89 92
role while Egeria was but a silent observer: her
her irrepressible Bowman, Christian
enthusiasm almost We learn of this ritual from Egeria’s description ideology and the image of pilgrimage through the desert did not elevate her
obscures the fact that the holy land, 13
the reality of this desert
of her visit to Mount Sinai, where she met with status in the church hierarchy, and she remained
93
landscape was devoid of the local presbyter (“a healthy old man [...] in fact Wilkinson, Egeria’s a passive participant in clerical routines, like the
any special character. Travels, 46, 50
—Leyerle, Landscape as just the man for the place”90), and wrote: majority of Christian laity within the religion’s
94
Cartography, 127 Ibid, 82-83
hierarchical structure.96
85 95
Egeria 5.1-5.6 ...when the whole passage had been read to us from the Ibid, 47 Egeria’s letters are so exhaustively detailed
86
Ibid, 5.7-5.8 Book of Moses (on the very spot!) we made the offering 96
Dix 1945:161 in p. 7 that they preserve—“like a fly in amber”, accord-
87
Ibid, 5.8-5.9 (my
in the usual way and received communion. As we were 97
Smith, To Take Place,
ing to historian Jonathan Smith—the process of
italics) coming out of the church the presbyters of the place gave 88 transformation that was then underway.97 Egeria
us ‘blessings’, some fruit which grows on the mountain 98
Egeria 24.1 begins her letters from Jerusalem: “Loving sisters.
itself [...] Thus the holy men were kind enough to show us 99
Sivan, Holy Land
I am sure it will interest you to know about the
everything, and there too we made the offering and prayed Pilgrimage and Western daily service they have in the holy places, and I
Audiences, 528
very earnestly, and the passages were read from the Book must tell you about them.”98 She reports, in the
100
Wilkinson, Egeria’s
of Kingdoms. Indeed, whenever we arrived anywhere, I Travels, 50-54
third person, every movement, conversation,
myself always wanted the Bible passages read to us.91 service, and location of a holy site, giving equal
Fig 5: Egeria’s approach to Sinai
Drawing by John Wilkinson
emphasis to important information (such as
Egeria’s remark exemplifies her affinity for read- scriptural quotes or prayers) as to benign details
Our path lay through the middle of the valley which ing a site’s scriptural affiliation while remaining such as a building’s smell, making the experience
stretched out in front of us, the valley in which, as I have within the familiar framework of recollection— ever more vivid for her audience.99 With great
told you, the children of Israel had their camp while Moses her “usual way.” Indeed, anthropologist Glenn attention, she lists the elements of the services:
went up into the Mount of God and came down again. Bowman argues that Egeria did not invent a Holy poems, sang by the boys’ choir; prayers spoken by
And all the way through the valley the holy men were Land, but rather inherited one from the memo- the bishop or a presbyter; lessons and preaching,
showing us the different places. Right at the end of the ries of her guides and the itineraries of her prede- where the Bible was read and taught; and the
valley, where we had spent the night and seen the Burning cessors.92 Her mode of worship, much like the sa- elaborate dismissal, or missa, when the bishop
Bush out of which God spoke to Holy Moses, we saw also cred topography of Sinai, was imported from the blessed all participants and sealed the service.100
the place where Moses was standing before the Bush tradition of a religion in exile that maintained it Of special interest was the intricate daily service
when God said to him “Undo the fastening of thy shoes: continuity through textual recollection of mem- in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” [Exo- ories. However, unlike the existing practice in the
dus 3:5, Acts 7:33] they showed us where the calf had been West of reading a text in successive instalments
made, where a large stone was set in the ground and still in a single church, Egeria—as an observant to
stands [...] they showed us where holy Moses ordered the the “Holy Men”—introduced a new logic of di-
children of Israel to run ‘from gate to gate’ [Exodus 32:27] viding the Old Testament into its component
when he had come back from the Mount.85 verses and reading each one at the place where
its narrative events transpired, thus creating a
This lengthy (and somewhat tedious) account ritual path across the Sinai based on geographical
goes on to include, alongside the “Burning Bush” progression rather than scriptural chronology.
and “large stone”, additional places from the The seriality and fragmentation of the ritual in
Book of Moses, such as the site of the miracle of the desert, following the Exodus of the Israelites,
the manna or the stream from which Moses drew foreshadowed what Egeria would experience in
water for the Israelites to drink [Exodus 32:20].86 Jerusalem: the systematic stational character of
Finally, Egeria concludes: the Holy City’s liturgy, this time retracing Christ’s
own Passion.
I know it has been rather a long business writing down all Egeria arrived in Jerusalem in 381 AD. At that
these places one after the other, and it makes far too much time, the unusually large liturgy was headed by
to remember. But it may help you, loving sisters, the better Cyril of Jerusalem, who was ordained by Macarius
to picture what happened in these places when you read (the bishop during Constantine’s conversion) and
the Books of Holy Moses.87 had occupied the seat of the bishop since the
inauguration of the Anastasis Rotunda in 348 AD.93
This passage reveals Egeria’s candid motivation Throughout the fourth century, Cyril was the only
to write her letters not as a guidebook for future bishop who included pilgrims in his services, and
travellers, nor a self-interested memoir, but a he was most likely responsible for the formation
Fig 6: Constantine’s buildings on Golgotha in the time of Egeria
visual aid for the imagination of those practicing of the city’s unique rituals.94 Egeria described Drawing by John Wilkinson
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER ONE— The Invention of the Holy Land 27
 101
Egeria 24.1-24.2
102
Egeria 24.3-24.7
All the doors of the Anastasis are opened before cock-crow
103
each day, and the monazontes and parthenae [monks and Sunday is described
by Egeria as the Seventh
virgins], as they call them here, come in, and also some lay day, since she is unaware
of the rearrangement of
men and women, at least those who are willing to wake at the Christian week: Until
such an early hour. From then until daybreak they join in the fourth century, the
climax of the Christian
singing the refrains to the hymns, psalms, and antiphons. week was - like in
Judaism - on Saturday,
There is a prayer between each of the hymns, since there or Sabbath. But in
are two or three presbyters and deacons each day by rota Jerusalem this was
changing: the fasting
[...] As soon as dawn comes, they start the morning hymns, days were changed from
monday and thursday
and the bishop with his clergy comes and joins them. He to Tuesday and Friday,
goes straight into the cave [of Christ’s burial] and into the and the holy day shifted
to Sunday. — Wilkinson,
railed area; he first says the Prayer for All and blesses the Egeria’s Travels, 71
catechumens, and then another prayer and blesses the 104
Egeria 24.8
faithful. Then he comes out [...] and everyone comes up to 105
Ibid, 24.9
have his hand laid on them. He blesses them one by one,
106
Ibid, 24.10
and goes out, and by the time the dismissal takes place it
107
is already day.101 Ibid
108
Ibid, 25.6
The day continues with identical services at 109
Wilkinson, Egeria’s
midday and three o’clock, as Egeria describes in Travels, 72-73
similar detail. The Lychencon (or Lucernare) follows 110
Egeria describes this
momentous gathering:
at four o’clock with the lighting of the lamps and “Monks and apotactites
candles, and finally, just before dusk, the congre- come not only from
the provinces such as
gation escorts the bishop outside of the Anastasis Mesopotamia, Syria,
Egypt, and the Thebaid,
and across the courtyard to the hill of Golgotha for where there are large
the day’s last prayers.102 This description reveals numbers of them, but
from every place and
the intensity of the ritual, the clear hierarchy province. No one of
them fails to make for
between the roles of the clergy, and the spatial Jerusalem to share the
deployment within the complex. celebrations of this
honorable festival.”
Egeria’s letters document the schedule Egeria describes the
Encaenia: “The date
of services not only on a daily cycle, but also when the Church on
throughout the Christian week and year. The Golgotha was conse-
crated to god is called
framework of services is designed to evoke the “Encaenia,” and on the
same day the holy church
events of Christ’s final days: Sunday is the day of of the Anastasis was also
Christ’s resurrection, and it is repeatedly recalled consecrated, the place
where the lord rose after
every week through a special service involving his passion [...] so they
arranged that this day
all members of the community as well as visit- should be observed with
ing pilgrims.103 Before sunrise, “as many [people] all possible gladness [...]
you will find in the Bible
as can get in” gather in the atrium of the Holy that the day of Encaenia
was when the House of
Sepulchre.104 When the bishop arrives with his God was consecrated,
congregation, “the doors are all opened, and all and holy Solomon stood
in prayer before God’s
the people come into the Anastasis, which is altar, as we read in the
Book of Chronicles [2
already ablaze with lamps.”105 Inside, the service Chronicles 7.5,9 and
includes three psalms and three prayers before John 10.22] —Egeria 48.2
the bishop “takes the Gospel book and goes to 111
The two dates are
not exactly on the same
the door, where he himself reads the account of day—Hanukkah was
the Lord’s resurrection.”106 This reading of the slightly earlier than the
Epiphany. Wilkinson,
account of Christ’s resurrection within his tomb Egeria’s Travels, 72-73
is, according to Egeria, the climax of the service, 112
Egeria 31.1
when “the whole assembly groans and laments 113
Ibid, 43.1
all that the Lord underwent for us, and the way
114
Egeria claims that
they weep would move even the hardest heart this causes “the greatest
to tears.”107 This unique staging interlocks place, strain on the people.”
Egeria 43.1
time, and text in a way that could not be situated
115
Ibid, 30.3
anywhere else. The cyclical repetition of the ritual
116
and its affectivity assures the recollection of all Ibid, 31.1
participants. 117
Ibid, 33.2
The systematic in situ reading of the gos- 118
Ibid, 33.3-33.4 (my
pel by the liturgy and the embodiment of italics)
Christ by the local bishop extended beyond the
28
Anastasis-Golgotha axis to include other com-
memorative sites throughout the city.108 Like
the reading of Christ’s resurrection in his tomb,
these rituals were based on a synthesis of text
and place for a number of narrative events, which
were spread across the year, forming the annual
Christian calendar. And as some holy sites were
built over existing Jewish traditions, so too did
the Christian year recontextualise some older
Jewish observances, namely agricultural festi-
vals.109 Passover became Easter; the Tabernacle,
when Solomon dedicated his Temple, became
the Feast of Dedication (or the Encaenia), in which
the consecration of the churches in Jerusalem
was similarly celebrated by Christians across the
provinces;110 and Hanukkah (the winter holiday
that traditionally signalled a new beginning) was
aligned with the celebration of Christ’s birth.111
Additional events were scheduled in relative
sequence: the fortieth day after Easter was the
celebration of the Ascension,112 and ten days later
was Pentecost, the feast of the coming of the Holy
Spirit.113
As Egeria shows, each of these festivities
intersected with at least two of the ten holy sites
in Jerusalem and its environs. Hence, the annual
cycle of rituals was spread across the city, cre-
ating a Christian territory of monuments and
churches. To understand how these sites were
ritualised, we can refer to Egeria’s description of
the Holy Week, which recalls the Passion of Christ
and is thus the most strenuous ritual of the
Christian year.114 It begins on a Sunday, when the
regular service is followed by a walk to “the place
of the cave where the Lord used to teach”115 on
the Mount of Olives, where Egeria listens to the
“hymns and antiphons suitable to the place and
the day, and readings too.”116 The group proceeds
to the Imbomon, “the place from which the Lord
ascended into heaven”, where, at five o’clock, “the
passage is read from the Gospel about the chil-
dren who met the Lord with palm branches, say-
ing ‘Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord.’[Matt 21.9]”117 In this event, unlike previous
occasions, the entire community answers Christ’s
scripted call (as read to them by the bishop) to
participate in the Passion. As they descend the
mountain, Jerusalem becomes a stage:
All the people go on foot down from the summit of the
Mount of Olives [...] the babies and the ones too young to
walk are carried on their parents’ shoulders. Everyone is
carrying branches, either palm or olive, and they accom-
pany the bishop in the very way the people did when once
they went down the hill with the Lord. They go on foot all
the way down the Mount to the city, and all through the
city to the Anastasis…118
The description of the first day of the Holy Week
reveals the city-wide magnitude of these celebra-
TOWARDS JERUSALEM
tions, encompassing all ages of the population
and passing “all through the city”. On other days
of the Holy Week, the liturgy parades were con-
ducted with the same affective intensity, leading
the community in a processional movement be-
tween the church on Mount Sion, the Nativity in
Bethlehem, the Lazarium in Bethany, the garden
at Gethsemane, and the Martyrium and Anas-
tasis on the Hill of Golgotha. On Pentecost, the
ritual would visit up to eight different locations.119
Fig 67: Above: Map of the central liturgical sites in Christian
Jerusalem in the fourth century (not to scale)
Below: Chart of the stations for the Christian liturgy in
Jerusalem in the fourth century
Drawings by Jonathan Smith
(1) Anastasis (2) Golgotha (3) Martyrium (4) Sion
(5) Mount Olives (6) Imbomon (7) Eleona (8) Lezarium
(9) Nativity (10) Gethsemane
This massive flow of people across the city, with
its chants, costumes, and props, reflects the trans-
formation of Christianity from a private mode of
worship to a public display of a powerful religion.120
Devotion was a civic activity—it was participation
in urban life itself.121 The procession of a great
crowd from station to station defines the territory
of Christian Jerusalem and establishes the agency
of pilgrims as its creators. The ‘stations’ (an ele-
ment which will be explored in the third chapter)
were immersed in the urban fabric of everyday life,
built over former shrines or natural features that
had been invested with Christian collective mem-
ories. In fact, the movement between the stations
seems to hold as much significance as the stations
CHAPTER ONE—
119
Smith, To Take
Place, 94
120
Ibid, 91-92
themselves. Throughout the various daily, weekly,
121
and yearly celebrations, the citizens and pilgrims
As a religion
coming out of its hiding, of Jerusalem would follow the bishop between the
Christians were “free
to take to the streets”
stations, crossing the city’s colonnaded streets,
as described John F. forums, and basilicas while remaining within the
Baldwin in The Urban
Character of Christian walled perimeter of protection. By appropriating
Worship (1987): “In the
transformation from
increasing urban territory for Christianity, the
being a threat to the peripatetic tradition of pilgrims across Jerusalem
public order to being its
legitimator, Christianity was a pivotal development in the symbolic and
was destined to perform
a function similar to
material reinscription of the city: it influenced
that of the pagan civil the local economy, shifted the city’s structures
religious establishment
it replaced.” – Baldovin, of power, excluded non-Christian citizens, paved
John. F., The Urban
Character of Christian
the streets with landmarks, and ritualised the
Worship: The Origins, urban fabric.
Development, and
Meaning of Stational This new incarnation of Jerusalem was
Liturgy (Oriental
Institute Press: Rome,
the inevitable outcome of a process sparked by
1987), 84-85; 260 Constantine, whose patronage oriented the men-
122
Peters, F.E., tal geography of the Christian world to a topo-
Jerusalem: The Holy City
in the Eye of Chroniclers,
graphical reality, and sustained by his successors,
Visitors, Pilgrims, who invested in the construction and mainte-
and Prophets from the
Days of Abraham to the nance of lodging facilities, travel infrastructure,
Beginnings of Modern
Times, (Princeton:
and newly commemorated scriptural sites.122 In
Princeton University the following centuries, the Christian Holy Land
Press, 1985), 161-162
became a state project, and the Empire supplied a
123
Montefiore,
Jerusalem: The
steady stream of funds to mark hallowed sites with
Biography, 194; suitable expressions of monumental materiality.
Procopius, On Buildings,
book V, 6.2; Two emperors stand out in this regard. The first
124
Peters, Jerusalem,
was Aelia Eudocia (401–460 AD), who was raised
161–162 as a Greek and converted to Christianity following
her marriage to Emperor Theodosius II. Arriving
in Jerusalem in 438 AD, she directed the construc-
tion of numerous projects: the church of St Sophia
in the court of Pilate; the church of St. Peter’s on
the site of Caiaphas’ house; the Church of St John
next to the Holy Sepulchre; and the Church of St
Stephan, to the north of the city, where Eudocia
herself was buried in 460 AD, next to the remains
of the first Christian martyr.123 She also expanded
the city walls to include suburban Christian sites,
such as Mount Zion beyond the Hadrianic enclo-
sure, and built a hospice for pilgrims outside the
complex on Golgotha. Her main contributions to
the city were increasing the number of churches
on historical (hence holy) sites, thus facilitating
movement between them and expanding accom-
modation for arriving visitors.124
The second emperor who propelled the mis-
sion to strengthen Jerusalem’s spiritual prom-
inence was the Byzantine Emperor Justinian
(484–565 AD). The last Christian patron before the
Crusades, he was determined to reunite eastern
and western Christendom under one empire by
enlarging his territorial reign and promoting
universal Christianity. As the last surviving pock-
ets of polytheism died out in Palestine, Justinian
directed his focus towards abolishing Judaism:
he demoted the legal status of the religion and
converted synagogues into churches. Justinian
founded the New (Nea) Church on the highest hill
in Jerusalem, atop a substructure of vaults and
The Invention of the Holy Land 29

walls built with unusually large rocks and spe-
cial cedar wood. Like Eudocia, Justinian included
accommodation in the program of the new com-
plex, with one hospice for the sick and another
for “visiting strangers”, that is, pilgrims, in need
of lodging.125
The sites erected in the first hundred years
following Constantine’s conversion would shape
the development of Christian consciousness
until the Islamic conquest in the seventh cen-
tury. The intervening centuries were a golden
age for Jerusalem pilgrims and, by extension, for
the church seeking to solidify collective mem-
ories. Jerusalem was experienced locally and
re-enacted from afar as a sacred topography of
natural elements and monuments, where the
scriptural climax took place. Notably, the events
commemorated in Jerusalem and formalised
in the fourth century in the Christian annual
cycle do not reflect the scripture in its entirety.
Important sites in Nazareth, Mount Tabor, and
Galilee, where Christ spent most of his life, are
ignored, giving exclusive significance to the sites
of Christ’s sacrifice. This process of selection and
omission is emblematic of collective memory,
which is not strictly obligated to the past but
shaped by the present events and conditions
defining the emerging group of believers. As an
institutional strategy, Christianity had to pre-
serve and reproduce the memories of Christ’s
triumph over death and Constantine’s defeat of
Jerusalem’s pagan and Jewish past.126
“THE BETTER TO PICTURE WHAT
HAPPENED IN THESE PLACES”:
TIME, SPEECH, AND
SUPPRESSION OF PLACE
The succinct Itinerarium Burdigalense and the ex-
haustive letters of Egeria construct a history
of Jerusalem’s appropriation into Christianity
through the eyes of its visitors. In the first text, an
anonymous traveller from Bordeaux transforms
the geography of fourth-century Palestine into a
sacred Christian topography, thus materialising
a religion that once preached against the very
notion of territorial rootedness. In the second, a
Spanish nun scripted her own “Exodus” across
Sinai, with the help of the monks of the desert,
and appropriated both the barren landscape and
the tales of the Old Testament into a resolutely
Christian system of belief. The two authors, sep-
arated by fifty years, were devoted to a common
Christian spatial-narrative elaboration: the Bor-
deaux pilgrim laid the framework of collective
memories by mapping their locations onto the
land, while Egeria coded the ritualisation of these
locations into a systematic memorialisation of
significant Christian events.
30
125 130
Wilkinson, Jerusalem Egeria, 43.2
Pilgrimage, 3-4
131
Elsner, The
126
Halbwachs, On
We understand these dramatic transfor- of Jerusalem and a focus on vivid imagination Itinerarium
Collective Memory, 39, 48 mations through the personal writings of two of spiritual places. She emphasises time over Burdigalense, 85
127
Hunt, Holy Land travellers who both exemplify a new subject— space, commending the liturgy for fixing texts as
Pilgrimage, 56
the Christian pilgrim. Leaving their homes for temporal events in a daily, monthly, and yearly
128
Elsner, The extended periods of time—the Bordeaux Pilgrim chronology: “What I admire and value most is
Itinerarium Burdigalense,
195 travelled for over a year, mostly on the road to that all the hymns and antiphons and readings
129
Halbwachs, On
and from Jerusalem, and Egeria spent three years they have, and all the prayers the bishop says, are
Collective Memory, 235 in Jerusalem—these pilgrims moved as innate always relevant to the day which is being observed
foreigners within familiar biblical lands.127 They and to the place in which they are used.”130
were conscious of their intentions, eager to record Thanks to the letters of Egeria, a ritual born
their journeys, and motivated by spiritual goals. in Jerusalem could be replicated in the West with
Their travelogues thus reveal not only the chang- near-identical precision of time and speech. In
ing status of Jerusalem during the Christian con- this process, place was suppressed, giving rise to
version of the Roman Empire, but also the power imagination, meditation, and visualisation as
of travellers to project a reality upon the land- alternatives modes of recollection.131 This also
scape and alter both the real and imagined city. allowed for new collective memories to form with
While this chapter links these two pilgrims more flexibility of localisation and commemora-
through their roles in shaping Christian devotion tion. As the physical city of Jerusalem grew less
in the Roman Empire, it must be acknowledged amenable to Western visitors in the centuries to
that they had contradictory motivations and come, this relocation of the faith proved valuable.
wrote for different audiences. The traveller from As the next chapter will explore, other Jerusalems
Bordeaux constructed his text as a spatial path proliferated across Medieval Europe, offering pil-
that could be retraced by future pilgrims heading grims alternate destinations to the Holy Land—
towards Jerusalem. As a Christian traveller, he yet these places were still oriented towards
utilised a familiar literary technique to convince Jerusalem, suspended between Egeria and the
fellow Christians (often addressing his readers in Bordeaux traveller, combining movement, text
the second-person present tense) that the Bible and memory.
land was within their reach.128 Arguably, his text
rearranged the imperial hierarchy by document-
ing the Holy Land as a tangible territory: by local-
ising Christian memories within a real terrain,
he eventually reversed the allegorical process of
dematerialisation of the Old and New Testament
that Christianity had adopted in exile. Crucially,
the Itinerarium Burdigalense legitimised and facil-
itated physical travel to sacred locations for the
purpose of recollecting Christian memories. As
Halbwachs observes, the physical examination
of symbolic sites reveals the essence of religious
phenomena—“those stones erected and pre-
served by crowds and by successive generations
of people whose traces one can follow in these
very stones. These are not traces of a human or
supernatural individual but rather of groups
animated by a collective faith.”129 The Bordeaux
traveller thus encourages participation in cyclical
commemorative works re-enacted on sites and
shared with a growing crowd.
Egeria had the opposite aim. By capturing a
prescriptive account of Jerusalem’s liturgy to send
back to the West, her detailed letters could serve
as a guidebook to re-enact Jerusalem’s rituals
anywhere, using the chronological system stan-
dardised across the empire. By reading the text
according to the dates of the year, Egeria’s readers
could re-enact her movements in the Holy Land,
basing their confidence in her comprehensive
personal account confirmed by geographic align-
ments with scripture. Egeria’s letters facilitated
a withdrawal from the geographic specificity
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER ONE— The Invention of the Holy Land 31

THE BASILICA AND
THE ROTUNDA
THE CONCEPT OF ANALOGY AND
THE RISE OF URBAN PILGRIMAGE IN
MEDIEVAL EUROPE
The public form of Christian worship in Jerusalem
would come to an end in the seventh century. The
brief invasion by the Persians in 614 AD and the
Islamic conquest of 638 AD destroyed the city’s
shrines and left the Christian capital in ruins. As a
result, the collective memories that were localised
by Constantine and his successors were gradually
lost; the rituals that maintained the possibility of
recollection were suppressed.1 It was during those
interim centuries between the fall of the city to
Islam in the seventh century and its recapture by
the Crusades in 1099 AD that Jerusalem’s physical
unavailability was negated through the erection
of alternatives in Europe. As such, the spiritual vec-
tor towards Jerusalem was inverted away from the
city itself and toward the bastions of Christianity
in the West, taking the shape of physical traces
(such as relics, pieces of earth, and containers of
specimens) and place-naming European shrines
after sites in the Holy Land, which allowed recol-
lection to occur away from the historical markers
in the ancient city.
Another form in which Jerusalem was
transferred outside its boundaries was through
the spatial replication of architectural elements
that held a mnemonic association with the Holy
City. More specifically, this chapter will focus on
the transfer of a spatial logic that was abstracted
from Christianity’s most revered sites and trans-
planted into new locations. This translation will
be explored through the concept of analogy in
order to understand how an archetype that was
born in Jerusalem was appropriated in the West
for political, spiritual, and economic gain. These
alternative Jerusalems—altars, churches, and
landscapes—differed in scale and program, and
yet they were all united by their commitment to
a certain abstraction of the Holy City that can be
understood through analogical thinking, an intel-
ligence that is fundamental for both this chapter
and the thesis at large, as it questions notions of
territorial specificity in favour of a spatial tempo-
rality and flexible geography.
CHAPTER TWO—
C H AP T E R T W O
1
Halbwachs, On THE CASE AGAINST
Collective Memory, 234
JERUSALEM PILGRIMAGE
2
Galatians 4:26, While the idea of pilgrimage to an alternative
“Jerusalem which is
above is free, which is Jerusalem became prominent in the Middle Ages,
the mother of us all.”
it should be understood within the political and
3
1 Corinthians 6:19 theological framework of the fourth century. As
4
Bitton-Ashkelony, the first chapter showed, the public worship that
Brouria, Encountering
the Sacred: The Debate emerged in the urban condition of Jerusalem
on Christian Pilgrimage made Christianity visible and powerful. Howev-
in Late Antiquity
(Berkeley: University er, it also distanced the faith from the founding
of California Press,
2005), 5 principles of its cult, established two centuries
5 earlier. As described in the previous chapter of
Wilkinson, John,
Jerusalem Pilgrimage, this dissertation, Christianity was developed as
1099–1185 (Milton Park:
Routledge, 1988), 2 boundless, universal, and anti-world; the symbol-
ic ownership of Jerusalem’s topography through
the processional liturgy seems to contradict these
notions, especially those put forth by St Paul.2 In
his letter to the Corinthians, Paul argues that
“your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is
in you.”3 His radical idea that God is found within
one’s body was as strategic as it was spiritual:
it allowed Christians under persecution and in
exile to practice religion in solitude through con-
templative prayer. It also separated Christianity
from the Graeco-Roman traditions of celebratory
public rituals, and thus from the sanctity of phys-
ical objects or geographical places. Within this
theological framework, the journey to a divine
site, with the associated physical and mental
hardships, could be seen as superfluous to the
faith.4 In the fourth century AD, as Christianity’s
memories were being materialised in the Holy
Land, some religious leaders voiced their opinion
against the rise of Jerusalem pilgrimage. Two
prominent figures were St Jerome and Gregory
of Nyssa, who wrote letters to refute the rising
phenomenon of spiritual travel to the Holy City.
While their arguments were essentially theologi-
cal, their reasoning was no doubt underpinned by
political motivations, which are deeply embedded
in the powerful vector that is pilgrimage.
St Jerome arrived in Jerusalem in 385 AD. He
left Rome, where he was the secretary of Bishop
Damasus I, with an entourage of noblewomen
who intended to spend the remainder of their
days in Palestine.5
The Basilica and the Rotunda 33
 6 17
“What is praiseworthy Gregory of Nyssa,
is not to have been at Letter 2.15, (my italics)
From his monastic cell in Bethlehem, Jerome Jerusalem but to have
lived a good life while
among those who dwell there. But as it is, there is sought to instrumentalise it for various gains. 18
Gregory of Nyssa,
UNIVERSALITY AND
dedicated himself to writing letters and translat- there.” — St Jerome, no form of uncleanness that is not brazen among In Encountering the Sacred: The Debate on Christian Letter 2.8 HIERARCHY:
Letter 58, 2.1744
ing the Old and New Testament to Latin. In his
7
them: fornications, adulteries, thefts, idolatries, Pilgrimage in Late Antiquity, Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony 19
Gregory of Nyssa, THE HOLY SEPULCHRE AS
Letter 58 from 395 AD, Jerome attempts to dissuade Jerome also argues
that Divine presence
drugs, envies, murders.”15 Gregory, who himself highlights this similarity between Jerome and Letter 2.17
AN ARCHETYPE
20
Paulinus of Nola from making a pilgrimage to the is not “restricted to a went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, dismissed the Gregory: Jerome suggests that physical proximity Bitton-Ashkelony, Suspended between public services and private
narrow strip of earth” Encountering the Sacred,
Holy Land. He claims that spiritual gain and pious nor a believer isn’t experience by writing that his faith “was neither can provide an aid to spirituality (provided there 43 meditations, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
“judged by his residence
behaviour are bound not by a specific territory but in this place or in that
diminished nor increased” upon return, because is no indecent behaviour) and Gregory argues 21
Ibid
emerged in the fourth century as a Christian
by personal behaviour, namely, a monastic way of but according to the faith was within himself.16 The collective memo- that an earthly entity can claim sanctity—but 22
archetype through the coupling of two liturgical
deserts of his faith.” St Ibid, 206
life.6 Aligning his words with those of St Paul, he Jerome, Letter 58, 3.1750 ries of Christianity were so vivid in his mind that it need not be Jerusalem. These opinions were spaces: the basilica and the rotunda. This spatial
23
in Bitton-Ashkelony, “Analogy and
claims that physical proximity to the holy sites is Encountering the Sacred,
he needed neither physical markers nor tangible certainly novel amongst contemporary Pauline Analogical Reasoning”,
configuration forms the basis for the Jerusalem
not nearly enough. Thus, he does not completely 93 proof to recollect them: thinkers. Furthermore, they both avoided a clas- Stanford Encyclopedia analogy. Analogy (from the Greek analogia or the
of Philosophy (June 25,
renounce the idea of sacred space, but he reminds 8
St Jerome, Letter 58, sic distinction between the earthly and heavenly 2013; revised January Latin proportio), is a similarity found between two
3.1751 25, 2019)
Paulinus that spiritual ascendency is not granted We knew that he was made man through the Virgin—be- Jerusalem, paving the way for a third option—an objects or a group of objects.23 An analogy can be
9 24
by sheer presence, and that being worthy of these Ibid, 3.1765 fore we saw Bethlehem; we believed in his resurrection other Jerusalem—that could serve local cults with- Martin, Michael A., defined as an abstraction shared between two
“‘It's Like… You Know’:
places is conditional on moral behaviour.7 Jerome 10
Bitton-Ashkelony, from the dead—before we saw his memorial-rock; we out harming their souls or belittling the cradle of The Use of Analogies and structures or compositions that are not otherwise
Encountering the Sacred, Heuristics in Teaching
follows Paul’s analogical thinking when he tells 92
confessed the truth of his ascension into heaven—without Christianity.21 Bitton-Ashkelony argues that this Introductory Statistical
alike, or it can be used as a tool to show how two
Paulinus that the “true worshippers worship the 11
having seen the Mount of Olives. We benefited only this transformation is emblematic of a society “that Methods,” in Journal of things that are essentially dissimilar can carry
Prawer, Joshua, Statistics Education 11,
Father neither at Jerusalem nor on mount Ger- “Christian Attitude much from our travelling there, that we came to know by perceived the advantages inhering in an earthly No. 2 (2003) an analogical similarity.24 Giorgio Agamben elab-
Towards Jerusalem in
izim”,8 and that access to the courts of heaven is the Early Middle Ages” in
comparison that our own places are far holier than those sacred geography—whether in Edessa, Gaul, 25
Agamben, Giorgio,
orates on this notion in The Signature of All Things
as easy from Britain as from Jerusalem, for “the The History of Jerusalem: abroad.17 Jerusalem, Qartamin, or Cappadocia— as provid- The Signature of All (2009), paraphrasing a theory put forth by Italian
The Early Muslim Period Things (Boston: MIT
kingdom of God is within you [Luke 17:21].”9 Mate- 638–1099, eds. Joshua ing a point where salvation, pride in the martyrs Press, 2009), 19 philosopher Enzo Melandri. According to Agam-
Prawer and Haggai Ben
rial things may pass, and when that happens, he Shammai (Jerusalem:
Gregory’s last sentence is striking: unlike Jerome, and saints, and ecclesiastical power converge.”22 26
Ibid, 20
ben, “Melandri shows that analogy is opposed
warns, so will the places made hallow by Christ’s Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi, he was not rejecting pilgrimage as such, nor was But there is also an inherent contradiction to the dichotomous principle dominating West-
1996), 320
history; only those who embody the cross within he preaching against physical journeys to sacred between Jerome and Gregory. While one advo- ern logic”25 by suggesting an alternative that is
12
“Had the scenes
them shall remain.10 of the Passion and of
shrines. Claiming that Jerusalem has no advan- cates worship through internal prayer and con- neither A nor B but “an analogical third [that] is
But Jerome’s letters would not be so influen- the Resurrection been tage over other regions of the world, Gregory templation, the other promotes active participa- attested here above all through the disidentifica-
elsewhere than in a
tial if they merely reiterated the zeitgeist of the populous city with court infers that our own places of worship can grant an tion in public services. This tension between the tion and neutralization of the first two.”26
and garrison, with
learned Church.11 As his letter unfolds, it reveals prostitutes, play-actors,
equal, if not higher, spiritual gain. Gregory does static and the choreographed is emblematic of the In the context of the ideas drawn from
an attitude derived from a firsthand experience and buffoons, and with not share Paul’s renunciation of territorial affil- inherent dilemma of pilgrimage—between an Gregory and Jerome’s letters, the concept of anal-
the medley of persons
in the fourth-century city, where prostitution, usually found in such iation with divine presence; he simply suggests interior experience that is ever-expandable and ogy can be instrumentalised to understand the
centres; [...] Men rush
crime, and evil are more prevalent than the spiri- here from all quarters
that it could be found in other locations on earth. an exterior performance that is spatially bound. alternative pilgrimage sites developed in medie-
tual aura emanating from the scenography of the of the world, the city Considering Gregory’s role as the bishop of Cap- That is, between the movement itself—which val Europe. It is neither Paul’s heavenly Jerusalem
is filled with people of
Passion.12 He writes: every race, and so great padocia, he was clearly determined to promote is exterior, intensive, and subject to interaction of the Second Coming, nor Constantine’s earthly
is the throng of men and
women that here you
the cult of saints in his region: “Really, if it is with the world—and the moment of arrival, proof of the Gospels, but a third incarnation, con-
Forsake cities and their crowds. Live on a small patch of will whave to tolerate in possible to infer God’s presence from the things where the pilgrim halts for meditation that is structed through the analogical transfer of a spa-
its full dimensions an
ground, seek Christ in solitude, pray on the mount alone evil.” — St Jerome, Letter that appear, one might more justly consider that he entirely internal. These two vectors, the horizon- tial logic through which the ritual of Jerusalem
58, 4.1773
with Jesus, keep near to holy places: keep out of cities, I dwelt in the nation of the Cappadocians than in plac- tal and the vertical, are combined in the Church pilgrimage can be performed elsewhere. In prac-
13
say, and you will never lose your vocation.13 Ibid, 4.1772 es elsewhere!”18 Hence, if one remains inclined of the Holy Sepulchre, where the conflict between tice, this is done by replicating the composition of
14
“As the inns and toward physical objects and sites, it should be the opinions of Jerome and Gregory remains spa- spaces in Jerusalem in other places, thus allowing
caravanserais and cities
Jerome suggests that the archetype of Christian in the east are so free
in a manner that does not pose a moral risk. He tially embedded. society to perform its services in a similar man-
salvation is the body itself, where it is protected and indifferent towards concludes: “Praise him in the places where you have ner. As we have seen, Egeria prescribed the way
vice, how will it be
from various forms of exploitations that can oc- possible for one passing your existence. For the changing of one’s place does
through such fumes to
cur in liturgical worship. This attitude dominated escape without smarting
not bring about any greater nearness to God.”19
the monastic movement which was emerging at eyes? Where the ear is Gregory’s convincing polemic can be
contaminated and the
the time amongst those who rejected the urban eye is contaminated, regarded as not only theological, but also highly
how is the heart not also
and opted for an internalisation of the faith. In contaminated by the
political: by downplaying Jerusalem’s superi-
that sense, Jerome advocated for a sedentary form unsavoury impressions ority and highlighting its moral degradation,
received through eye
of pilgrimage—a journey that would take place and ear? How will it be Gregory could promote local pilgrimage in his
possible to pass through
within one’s own mind. such places of contagion
native Cappadocia. Alongside his brother, Basil of
Jerome’s contemporary, Gregory of Nyssa, without contracting Caesarea, Gregory institutionalised the local cult
infection?” — Gregory
shared a similar attitude towards physical pil- of Nyssa, Letter 2.7, of martyrs and promoted regional pilgrimage by
in Silvas, Anna M.,
grimage to Jerusalem, but for completely differ- Gregory of Nyssa: The
hosting annual feasts and celebrations for local
ent reasons. His letter from the 380s, written Letters, Introduction, saints.20 These gatherings not only played a cru-
Translation and
when hordes of pilgrims were making their way Commentary (Brill: cial part in the ongoing fight against paganism,
Boston and Leiden,
to Jerusalem, strongly advised against travel 2007), 118.
but also strengthened the influence that Gregory
due to the exposure to immoral behaviour that 15
and Basil exerted over the local population—
Gregory of Nyssa,
would be endured along the way.14 He warned Letter 2.10 while also increasing their income from pilgrims.
of the spiritual degradation in the city: “if grace 16
He concludes with a
Indeed, both Jerome and Gregory were aware
were greater in the vicinity of Jerusalem than personal observation: of the latent potential in this mass movement Fig 1: Eusebius’ description of the church on Golgotha
“let our counsel be all Drawing by the author, after John Wilkinson
anywhere else, sin would not be so entrenched the more persuasive, be- of Christians towards tangible spirituality, and
cause we counsel you on
matters which we have

34 ascertained with our

own two eyes.” —Gregory TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO— The Basilica and the Rotunda 35
of Nyssa, Letter 2.14
 27
Blanchette, Isabelle 39
and Dunbar, Kevin, Mann, The Source of
“How analogies are Social Power, 329
in which the liturgy facilitates recollection of generated: The roles of
protection from prosecution under pagan rule, Roman Empire. At the end of the third century, of past events and tendencies”,51 in the words of
40
Ibid, 338
collective memories for the congregation using structural and superfi- as religious practice in these adapted homes was Diocletian’s reforms granted more local power to Ward Perkins, but a conscious political decision
cial similarity”, Memory 41
specific time and text; if these can be practiced and Cognition 28 (2000): undetectable from the outside.28 Until about 200 literate urban males, many of them Christian.39 Perkins, Ward, to position the space of Christian worship at the
108–124 “Constantine and the
in a site analogical to Jerusalem, the recollection AD, the typical church-house was a simple space This unofficial patronage over Christianity Origins of the Christian highest rank of public monumental buildings.52
28 Basilica”, Papers of the
of Christ’s death and resurrection may take place Krautheimer, Richard, (often a dining room) where bread and wine were changed the political arena, giving church leaders British School at Rome 22
The first church built as a basilica was
Early Christian and
with great affectivity even outside the city of Byzantine Architecture. given along with the delivery of a sermon.29 In the possibility to translate their spiritual knowl- (1954): 69 erected by Emperor Constantine I in Rome, in the
(New Haven; London:
Jerusalem itself. Yale University Press,
the third century, however, the clerical hierarchy edge into ideological power.40 When Christianity 42
Such as the Basilica immediate aftermath of his conquest in 312 AD.
Porcia, built in 184 BC in
The scientific terminology for analogical 1986), 27 became more elaborate. Christianity spread to was legalised by Constantine, the typology of the the forum of Republican
The single-nave basilica terminated in a semi-cir-
thinking includes naming a source and applying 29
Ibid, 24 nearly every city of the empire’s eastern prov- church maintained the dynamic complexity of its Rome. — Perkins, cular apse, with a pair of aisles on either side sep-
Constantine and the
its logic to an analogous target.27 The source in the 30
Mann, The Source of
inces, with each community organized as an domestic origins, but grew in scale to the stan- Origins of the Christian arated by arcades.53 Measuring 75 by 55 metres,
Basilica, 71
context of this paper is Jerusalem’s most vener- Social Power, 320 autonomous ecclesia (assembly).30 The missionary dard dimensions of monumental public buildings it could hold a congregation of several thousand
43
ated site, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (whose 31
Chadwick, The Early ministry of the first century—led by the travel- as an expression of liturgical prestige. Krautheimer, Early worshippers and at least two hundred members
Church, 51 Christian and Byzantine
construction, consecration, and celebration was ing apostles—evolved into stationary clerics with Thus, when Constantine ordered the bishop Architecture, 42 of the clergy.54 This strictly longitudinal space
32
discussed in the first chapter of this dissertation), In the Eucharist, for geographically bounded authority.31 As such, the of Jerusalem to construct a “a basilica superior to 44
Ibid, 41
proved ideal for the needs of the early church:
example, the bishop con-
specifically its distinct architectural combination ducted the prayer while local bishops, presbyters and deacons—each one those in all other places” over the sites of Christ’s 45
the procession of the bishop and his presbyteries
the presbyters assisted Krautheimer, Richard,
of rotunda and basilica. In what follows, I argue in breaking the bread. In
assigned a clear position within the hierarchy crucifixion, he envisioned the building as a polit- “The Constantinian could move through the central nave; readings
Basilica”, Dumbarton
that the coupling of these two spaces—a centrally another testimony, the of the church—assumed the role of itinerant ical victory.41 A basilica, a typology in use from the Oaks Papers 21 (1976),
could be directed from the apse and across the
assembly is directed by
planned, double-shelled structure and a strictly the bishop, the presby- teachers.32 This was a shift from unregulated second century BC,42 was a large hall for generic 122 aisles; and offers could be given in a line before
ters sit on either side,
longitudinal basilica—created a composition that and the deacons stand.
universal freedom to a standardised set of rituals public use that included markets, military facili- 46
In Rituals and Walls: the apse altar.55 Thus, Constantine’s political,
The Architecture of Sacred
could be distilled and applied as an analogical – Alikin, The Earliest and scriptures, what historian Henry Chadwick ties, courthouses, and domestic reception halls— Space, Pier Vittorio Aureli
liturgical, and practical choices for a fourth-cen-
History of the Christian
target. It is an abstraction taken from Jerusalem, Gathering, 73 calls a transition from “lay democracy to a cler- functions that can be anachronistically described and Maria Shéhérazade tury Jerusalem church can be explained by the
Giudici argue that while
towards Jerusalem. 33
Chadwick, The Early
ical authoritarianism.”33 While Jesus preached as secular.43 Distinct from temples (which often sacred space is dictated role of the Emperor in late antiquity, the public
by a clear orientation,
Church, 28 for a separation of religious and secular power sheltered a representation of the divine), basilicas the essence of secular
nature of Christian worship, the hierarchical
34
Matthew 22:21 (“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which accommodated gatherings of citizens within a space is its absence character of its services, and the formal flexibility
of a clear sense of
35
Mann, The Source of
are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are defined interior.44 This enclosed space could take direction. Aureli, Pier of the basilica.56
Vittorio, Giudici, Maria
Social Power, 329 God’s”34), bishops in large urban centers began many forms: wide or narrow, single or multiple Shéhérazade, Rituals and
At the other end of the Golgotha complex,
to accrue civic authority, often more than local entries, a central nave with or without multiple Walls: The Architecture across the open-air atrium, stood the Anastasis
of Sacred Space (London:
Roman leaders.35 By the third century, the Church aisles separated by arcades, colonnades, or a cen- Architectural Association Rotunda, whose origin can similarly be traced to
Press, 2016)
developed a municipal structure where each city tral ambulatory, topped with clerestory windows pagan architecture. The double-shell, freestand-
47
was ruled by a bishop who collected taxes and or an upper gallery.45 In their original form, these Krautheimer, “The ing structure measured 33.7 metres in diameter.57
Constantinian Basilica”,
cared for the city’s poor.36 In 251 AD, the church utilitarian buildings constructed a field condition 125 Inside, a circular ring of alternating piers and
in Rome supported a bishop, seven deacons, 52 in which every direction was possible, the lack of 48
Krautheimer, Early
columns supported an arcade that surrounded
exorcists and readers, and over 1,500 widows and orientation manifesting an egalitarian principle.46 Christian and Byzantine Christ’s empty tomb. Misaligned with the axis of
Architecture, 42
orphans.37 By the third century AD, a particular form the basilica by 2.5 metres, it is widely accepted by
49
Krautheimer, “The
Given these organisational transitions, the of basilica was gaining favour in imperial Rome: Constantinian Basilica,”
archaeologists that the Anastasis was built after
Fig 2: Constantine’s Basilica on Golgotha, house-church needed to grow from a mere din- a single-nave, timber-roofed structure, with a 124 the basilica, sometime between 339 and 348 AD.58
reconstruction by Richard Krautheimer 36
Ibid
ing room to accommodate multiple ecclesiastic clear longitudinal rhythm dictated by colonnades 50
Perkins, Constantine
and the Origins of the
37
needs, including a large assembly room with a leading to a semi-circular apse.47 Rising above Christian Basilica, 76
Chadwick, The Early
In order to understand how these two types work Church, 58 division between the laymen; a raised platform the main hall, the apse platform, or the tribunal, 51
Ibid, 84
together, it is importamt to trace their typological 38
An example of such
for the bishop and his presbytery; a sacrificial provided an axial orientation for the space. This
52
Krautheimer, The
origins as separate spatial entities. While there is Domus Ecclesiae was dis- altar; a room for baptism; and a vestibule or was the seat of the emperor—whose role within Constantinian Basilic,
covered in a 1934 exca-
no precise lineage to the buildings on Golgotha, vation at Dura-Europos, antechamber where the catechumens (baptismal the evolving cult was becoming increasingly 127
a Roman border-fortress
there are a number of architectural and compo- on the Euphrates. The
candidates) could hear the last part of the service, imbued with divine qualities—from where he (or 53
Perkins, Constantine
and the Origins of the
sitional precedents, both in form and function, house, dated to 230 AD, the communion, without participating in it.38 his representative) would decree God-given law.48 Christian Basilica, 85
was located by the walls
that were interpreted from a combination of of the settlement with These spaces, in addition to dining halls, dwelling Richard Krautheimer argued that this spatial con- 54
a sole access from a Krautheimer, Early
the domestic enclosures of pre-Constantinian narrow path. A typical
spaces, classrooms, libraries, and storage spaces, figuration reflected the character of the Roman Christian and Byzantine
Architecture, 48
Christianity and the public monuments of the courtyard dwelling, demanded a workable circulation design to Empire of the early fourth century, where “the
it was surrounded by 55
Pagan Roman Empire. The analysis that follows rooms on three sides and ensure a smooth flow during the mobile service. borderlines between religious and secular, civic, Krautheimer, “The
a portico on the fourth. Constantinian Basilica”,
will attempt to connect several tendencies in Its transformation
Thus, long before the memories of Christianity judiciary, and throne basilicas had been obliter- 135
order to articulate the formation of what would into a Christian church were localised across the sacred topography ated.” Christ, whose image was straying away 56
Aureli and Giudici,
is apparent from its
become the archetype of Christian architecture in spatial amendments: of Jerusalem, the house-church provided the from a humble miracle worker into an emperor of Rituals and Walls, 22
two rooms, one of them
the millennia to come, as well as the source for a being the reception hall,
structure for stational worship and hierarchical heaven, would find his natural seat in the tribu-
replicable analogical abstraction. were merged to create community. The division of the clergy, faithful, nal. Therefore, Krautheimer explains, “any basil-
a gathering hall for the
As described in the previous chapter, the congregation. A smaller and catechumens was spatially manifested in the ica was, or carried the connotation of, a sanctuary
adjacent space was suit-
first Christian congregations took place inside able for the withdrawal
rooms, anterooms, and courtyard of the Domus of God on earth.”49 Hence, Constantine’s adoption
homes. The Domus Ecclesiae, or house-church, of the catechumens from Ecclesiae, reflecting the growing power of the of the basilica was at once pragmatic and ideo-
the communion, where Fig 3: Elevation of the Anastasis Rotunda
enclosed early worship in an intimate setting, they could hear but not Church. logical: as the go-to public building of the Roman Drawing by Kenneth John Conant
see the climax of the ser-
befitting the parts of the ritual with domestic vice. A small rectangular
As the rivalry grew between Church and Empire, it was familiar, easy to construct, and
connotations (such as the Eucharist, which rec- space accessible from state, Christians consolidated increasing laic extremely flexible in scale.50 At the same time,
the courtyard was the
ollects the Last Supper). This setting also offered baptistery, where a small power as they infiltrated higher ranks of the it was not simply “the logical product of a chain
tub was covered by a
canopy. – F. van der and

36 Christine Mohrmann,
Atlas of the Early TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO— The Basilica and the Rotunda 37
Christian World (Nelson,
1958)

Before the erection of the rotunda, and according
to the description of the pilgrim from Bordeaux,
Christ’s tomb aedicule stood in the centre of a
semi-circular porticoed courtyard, open to the
sky. This setting is reminiscent of the Christian
Heroa, erected from as early as the second century
AD to honour sites of martyrdom.59 In the third
century, these open-air precincts were replaced
by monumental martyria, which accommodated
both the grave of a martyr and space for memo-
rial services. In Jerusalem, the Anastasis was
erected as both the grave of the martyr and a place
to commemorate and recall the greatest martyr-
dom of all.
Spatially, the rotunda could accommodate
a centrally-oriented service around the tomb,
while the barrel-vaulted ambulatory provided
for circulation. This layout was common in
Roman sepulchral architecture of the Third and
fourth centuries,60 meaning that Christian mar-
tyria were often indistinguishable from imperial
mausolea, and thus inspired by the monumental-
ity of pagan temples. This similarity, according
to Krautheimer, became acceptable due to the
‘religious neutrality’ of funerary buildings, which
were generally void of religious overtones due
to their nature as private memorials.61 It is pos-
sible, then, that the centrally-planned Anastasis
was a mausoleum, a martyrium, and a heroa for
Christ—a place to commemorate a man, God, and
king.62
The combination of a longitudinal basilica
and a centrifugal rotunda provided two distinct
spaces for public and private modes of worship,
and could accommodate a service that was mobile
and hierarchical. Egeria, who stayed in Jerusalem
from 381 to 384 AD, reveals in her letters the use of
spaces and sequence during the daily mobile ser-
vices. She describes a procession that moves from
a service in the Martyrium Basilica to the com-
munion in the Rotunda, where the Bishop him-
self enters the railings of the cave while the faith-
ful walk through the eight doors which are then
locked shut. At this time the catechumens, which
have yet to be initiated into the faith, waited in
the outdoor atrium, where they could hear the
loud applause coming from within but not see
the mystery of baptism and the climax of the
service.63 It is therefore clear that the Anastasis
is placed on the highest of spiritual hierarchy of
spaces within the complex: It is the focal point of
the composition, standing at the far end from the
entry, at the culmination of a symbolic and literal
passage of rites.
While the basilica is placed below the
Rotunda on the sacred scale, it nevertheless
allows a variety of liturgical activities. During
lent, the period before Easter, Egeria writes that
“the bishop’s chair is placed in the middle of
the Great Church, the Martyrium [basilica], the
38
57 69
Kleinbauer, W. Krautheimer,
Eugene, “The Anastasis Introduction to ‘An
Rotunda and Christian Iconography of Medieval
architectural invention”,
presbyters sit in chairs on either side of him, of affectivity and immersion in the memory. The Architecture’, 1
terms, this type of association can be regarded
in The Real and Ideal and all the clergy stand. Then one by one the combination of these two spaces creates a situa- 70
as a superficial similarity, where there is a resem-
Jerusalem in Jewish, Ibid, 4-5
Christian and Islamic ones who are seeking baptism are brought up, tion in which the body of the worshippers takes blance between the properties of the source and
71
Art: Studies in Honor Blanchette, I., and
of Bezalel Narkiss on
men coming with their fathers and women with part in an orchestrated service that is deployed Dunbar, K. (2000), "How
target.71Structural similarity, however, refers to
the Occasion of His their mothers.”64 This description shows how spatially in a choreographed ritual. The novelty analogies are generated: “the resemblance in the underlying systems of rela-
Seventieth Birthday, The roles of struc-
ed. Bianca Kühnel the bishop interrogates the candidates who walk found in Jerusalem’s Christian architecture is tural and superficial tions between the elements of the sources and the
(Jerusalem: Hebrew similarity," Memory and
University, Center for
up and down the central axis in order to assess then not a typology but a relational composition Cognition, 29
elements of the target. Structural similarity exists
Jewish Art, 1998), 140 their moral compatibility with the Church. The of specific pre-existing types that set the stage for 72
if the relations between the objects in the source
Ibid
58
Kleinbauer, The longitudinal basilica allows him to be seated in a textually-bound ritual. are similar to the relations between the objects in
73
Anastasis Rotunda, 141 Ousterhout, Robert,
the center of the church, being surrounded by his It is this composition that forms the ana- Flexible Topography
the target, independently of the similarity between the
59
Krautheimer, Early seated or standing congregation, as he becomes logical source of other Jerusalems. It could then and Transportable objects themselves.”72 That is, structural similarity
Christian and Byzantine Geography, in The Real
Architecture, 32 the dispenser of divine judgement. This staged be abstracted and implanted within a differ- and Ideal Jerusalem in can be found as the underlying analogy, even if
Jewish, Christian and
60
Krautheimer, Richard,
activity surely produces connotative association ent condition as a target. This analysis of ‘other’ Islamic Art; Studies in
a superficial similarity is not readily apparent.
“Introduction to ‘An with judiciary basilical halls and with political Jerusalems stems from the seminal essay by Honor of Bezalel Narkiss Considering this interpretation, it can be argued
Iconography of Medieval on the Occasion of His
Architecture’”, Journal power, showcasing how its aisles, columns, and Richard Krautheimer, Introduction to ‘Iconography of Seventieth Birthday that the examples provided by Krautheimer,
of the Courtauld and Ed. by Bianca Kühnel.
Warburg Institutes 5
raised platforms construct a distance that is Medieval Architecture’ (1942), where he argues that (Jerusalem: Hebrew
which all refer to the design and layout of round
(1942), 13 instrumentalized in space, separating the bishop in the early Middle Ages churches were invested University, 1998), 394 churches, give only partial attention to the ana-
61
Krautheimer, Early and his clergy from the candidates.65 with meaning by “imitating a highly venerated logical source by focusing on the element that is
Christian and Byzantine
Architecture, 36 (my
The basilica is also used for preaching and prototype”—the Church of the holy Sepulchr.69 the highlight of the complex. Instead, a spatial
italics) teaching, during which “the bishop sits and While Krautheimer doesn’t use the word analogy system of relations must be implemented: a basilica
62
Krautheimer, preaches, [while] the faithful utter exclamations” or the terminology of source and target (he refers and a rotunda.
Introduction to ‘An
Iconography,’ 64
which are often loud, creating a clear stage pres- to them as the original and an architectural copy), his In order to explain this particular kind of
63
ence between the bishop and the audience.66 The analysis is similar to analogical thinking. That analogical thinking, and how it has facilitated the
Egeria, 46.6
most detailed teachings occur during Lent, when is, he does not wish to discuss a mimetic repre- diffusion of Jerusalem, two case studies will be
64
Egeria, 45.1-6
the candidates go through a complete Biblical sentation of the Holy Sepulchre elsewhere but an explored below. While essentially different from
65
Aureli and Giudici, induction. Here Egeria describes a different spa- inexact reproduction that is based on selective one another, these structures exemplify both
Rituals and Walls, 22
tial distribution: replication of symbolic architectural elements. the process of constructing an analogy and the
66
Egeria, 46.4
Some examples include St. Michael at Fulda intelligence of its use. Both of the cases are set in
67
Ibid, 46.2 The bishop’s chair is placed in the great church, the (820-822 AD) and the Holy Sepulchre of Cambridge the Twelfth Century, a time when the increased
68
Ibid, 46.4 Martyruyn, and all those to be baptised the men and the (first quarter of the 11th century), where a central- physical connection to the Holy Land was estab-
women, sit around him in a circle [...] his subject is god’s ly-planned structure with a surrounding vaulted lished by the Crusades and the urbanisation of
law; during the forty days he goes through the whole ambulatory provided the connotations of the Europe. The ability to import spatial ideas from
Bible, beginning with Genesis, and first relating the literal Anastasis Rotunda.70 In this transfer of geomet- Jerusalem—be it the earthly, the heavenly, or a
meaning of each passage, then interpreting its spiritual rical composition and architectural elements, the blurred representation of the two— played a cru-
meaning. 67 sanctity of Jerusalem’s holy sites was transported cial role in this process.73
into a local vessel of worship, imbuing it with the
This unique circular configuration eliminates the appropriated aura of the Holy Land. In analogical
usual hierarchical distribution, and it is then that
students can, in turn, respond with questions on
the scriptures, thus engaging in a dialogue with
the bishop. According to Egeria, these in-depth
teaching sessions occur in the basilica for three
hours each morning during the seven weeks of
lent, until Easter which takes place on the eighth
week. It is then that the bishop assumes an ele-
vated position in the basilica, when “[h]is chair is
placed at the back of the apse, behind the altar.”68
What is clear from these examples is that
within the course of several weeks, each of the
spaces is used to serve a different liturgical func-
tion, the basilica being the most versatile: it is
there that the bishop is moved within the space
and in relation to his students: from the middle
to the apse, in front of a lined audience or within
a circle of listeners, and either leading an longitu-
dinal precession or orchestrating an axial move-
ment of the candidates. While in the Rotunda,
the contemplative mysteries are set around the Fig 4: From left: St. Michael’s Church, Fulda (820 AD); Holy Sepulchre, Northampton
Tomb of the Lord, and are generally composed (1100 AD); Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre (1049 AD)Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Cambridge
(1130 AD), Santo Stefano, Bologna (1141 AD), Temple Church, London (1185 AD)
as more exclusive services, with a higher degree All drawings by the author, not to scale.
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO— The Basilica and the Rotunda 39
 74
"sanctum Stefanum
qui dicitur sancta
BRANDING BOLOGNA: Hyerusalem,” quoted
in Ousterhout, Robert,
chapel.78 Markers within the church were made
JERUSALEM AS THE “The Church of Santo into localisations of collective memories: one
Stefano: A ‘Jerusalem’ in
FOUNDATION STONE OF CIVIC Bologna” in Gesta, Vol. of the supports was referred to as the Column
CONSCIOUSNESS 20, No. 2 (The University
of Chicago Press, 1981),
of Flagellation; a chapel was referred to as the
The most elaborate structure that maintains its 8 chamber of Christ’s imprisonment; stairs from
analogical coherence is found in the complex 75
According to the the courtyard were referred to as the Scala Santa,
information booklet pur-
of Santo Stefano in Bologna. While the dating chased by the author in
leading to a room where a stone was said to be
of the complex is disputed between local tradi- Santo Stefano, Bologna. the point where Pilate cast his judgment; a win-
tions (Fifth Century) and learned archaeologists 76
Morris, Collin, dow called Ecce Homo, marked the arch above the
“Bringing the Holy
(Twelfth Century), it seems that the earliest ref- Sepulchre to the West:
location of Christ’s arrest.79 Similarly to the pro-
erence to the church as a local Jerusalem dates to S. Stefano, Bologna, liferation of scriptural affiliation to Jerusalem’s
from the Fifth to the
887 AD.74 Located on the road leading east from Twentieth Century”, topography, elements within Santo Stefano were
in The Church
Bologna’s old city centre, the complex has both Retrospective, Volume 33
dedicated to events from the New Testament,
Pagan and Paleo-Christian Foundations: a shrine (Cambridge University thus forming edges to a mobile form of recollec-
Press, 1997), 38
to the Egyptian goddess Isis was in use until the tion within the church complex itself.
77
Ousterhout, The
Fourth Century, when, according to tradition, Church of Santo Stefano,
Scholars regard Santo Stefano as a
it was converted into a baptistry. The adjacent 312 local Jerusalem due to a number of reasons.
structure was consecrated as the Vitale and Ag- 78
Ibid Krautheimer argues that the creator of Santo
ricole Cathedral, where the remains of the two 79
Ibid, 314
Stefano, much like other Medieval architects,
Bolognese martyrs (that were discovered in 393 80
“did not intend it to imitate the prototype as it
Krautheimer,
AD) were buried.75 Introduction to ‘An looked in reality; he intended to reproduce it typice
Iconography of Medieval
The complex as we know it today was recon- Architecture’, 17
and figuraliter, as a memento of a venerated site.”80
structed sometimes between 1164 and 1180 AD.76 81
What he means is that it wasn’t an exact copy,
Ousterhout, The
Its main feature is the centrally-planned ‘Holy Church of Santo Stefano, but that some elements were clearly borrowed 0 5 10 50m

313
Sepulchre’, an irregular-octagonal structure
that is covered by a dome. It is dominated by a
large tomb in its center (though on a slight off-
set) that is encircled by a ring of twelve supports
and an ambulatory that is surmounted by a gal-
lery. While the proportions between the size of
the tomb and the structure itself are different,
the structure replicates several architectural
elements that were clearly borrowed from the
Anastasis Rotunda in Jerusalem. The octagonal
structure is accessed from a porticoed courtyard
that is referred to as Cortile di Pilato: a water basin in
the centre is venerated as the one used by Pilatus
to wash his hands before Christ’s trial [Matthew
27:24]. On the Eastern edge of the atrium, across
from the ‘Holy Sepulchre,’ is a shallow structure
that terminated in three chapels. Two of the
chapels take the form of a semicircular apse,
while the central one is cruciform in plan and is
dedicated to Santa Croce. In the Twelfth Century,
the chapels were referred to as Calvary, where an
artificial mound was completed with a cross to
create a local Hill of Golgotha.77 Together, these
three features —the octagon surrounding a tomb,
an open-aired courtyard with a symbolic monu-
ment, and the series of reliquary chapels—begin
to draw an analogical relationship with the orig-
inal Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
In the following years, Santo Stefano
extended its possibilities of worship as its ini-
tial Twelfth Century composition proliferated
into additional structures: the aisled Church
of St. Giovanni Battista, located south of the
Octagon; the Crypt, which has a central nave and
double aisles, where the relics of the Saints are
housed; a Benedictine Cloister; and an additional
from Jerusalem. The number of supports around
the tomb, for example, corresponds both to the
number of the columns in Jerusalem and to the
number of the apostles, being both a literal and
symbolic choice. The octagon, which was inter-
changeable in the Medieval mind with a circle,
evokes the figure of eight—hence of resurrection
and salvation—while alluding to the form of the
Anastasis Rotunda.81
But Santo Stefano is not just an amalgama-
tion of mnemonic referents: it also creates a struc-
tural analogy in its compositional logic. As such,
the relationship between the courtyard and the
octagonal structure replicates the one between
the atrium and the Anastasis in Jerusalem; it
even follows the slight offset of the tomb in
Jerusalem, which allows a gathering of crowd by
the entrance of the centrifugal structure. The rep-
lication of an architectural logic that considers a
round structure’s interior and exterior spaces, a
central object of veneration, and an ambulatory
for circulation, set the space for a liturgical prac-
tice that originated in Jerusalem. This means that
the analogical structures allows a pilgrim to enact
in Bologna the ritual he or she would perform in
Jerusalem; the abstraction of a spatial logic and
its implementation with local materials (such
as brick masonry and evangelical iconography)
enabled Jerusalem worship without the streneus
and morally-risking journey. Furthermore, The
addition of sacred sites within the church itself
set the stage for a peripatetic worship that is at
once mobile and yet bound by speech.
Like the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Santo
Stefano played a role in both the local cult and as
a centre for pilgrimage. During Easter Week, the
Fig 5: Plan of Santo Stefano
Drawing by the author, after Robert Ousterhout
stone tomb in the centre of the octagon was the
focal point of the service: on Good Friday, a replica
of the Cross was enclosed within the tomb, and
over the next three days men and women (on
alternating days) were allowed to enter the tomb
and visit the Cross.82 On Easter Morning, the
tomb was ceremonially opened following a pro-
cession of monks carrying candles and signing
Aurora Lucis rutilat.83 The Jerusalem service of the
Adoratio Crucis had its parallel place in Bologna,
this time in the series of Chapels at the east
end of the complex. Much like in Jerusalem, the
Bolognese Calvary was where worshippers could
kiss the presented Cross on the Thursday of Holy
Week, in a small chapel that was adjacent to the
open-air courtyard.84
The services in Bologna’s analogous Jerusa-
lem, much like the source, extended beyond the
confines of a single complex and well into the
urban domain. A monastery built on a nearby hill
was called St. Giovanni in Monte Oliveti, and the val-
ley separating these two churches was described
as Josaphat, following the topographical drop
between the Old City and the Mountain of Olives
in Jerusalem. An unknown pond supposedly
represented the natatoria Siloe (the Siloam Pool),
and the Church of St. Tecla (which no longer
exists) bears references to the Field of Hakelda-
ma.85 These elaborate markers are significant as
they set the stage for a theatrical Easter celebra-
tion, similar to the one described by Egeria: On
Palm Sunday, following the service conducted
on St. Giovanni in Monte, palm branches were
82
Ibid, 318 distributed to the participants who then followed
83
Ibid a public procession to Santo Stefano.86
84
Ibid, 316
And yet there is a seminal difference
85
between Bologna and Jerusalem which highlights
Thurston, Herbert,
The Stations of the the way the aura of the latter was appropriated. In
Cross: an account
of their History and
Bologna, the stational services can be dated to the
Devotional Purpose Ninth Century, meaning that, according to his-
(London, 1914), 9
torian Colin Morris, the mobile form of devotion
86
Ousterhout, The
Church of Santo
predated the sites, and it is the liturgical needs for
Stefano, 316 physical stations that initiated their localisation
87
Morris, Bringing the in the city.87 In other words, it was the demand
Holy Sepulchre to the
West, 54
for topographical recollection of scriptural events
88
that structured the analogy: a visit to the tomb on
Vita Sancti Petronii,
quoted inMorris, Easter Morning required a Sepulchre, and a pub-
Bringing the Holy
Sepulchre to the West,
lic procession demanded stations. The chronolog-
36 ical discrepancy between the stations and their
ritualisation in the urban realm can be explained
as part of an elaborate invention of an urban tra-
dition that occured in twelfth century Bologna. A
manuscript from 1180 that chronicles the life of
St. Petronius, Bishop of Bologna between 432 and
450 AD, traces the origin of Santo Stefano:
“With much labour [he] symbolically created a work,
marvellously constructed, like the Sepulchre of the Lord in
the form which he had seen, and carefully measured with
a rod, when he was at Jerusalem.”88
This document remains the only source on the
establishment of Santo Stefano as a surrogate
Jerusalem. Scholars such as Krautheimer, Morris,
and Ousterhout render the manuscript’s claim
for a Fifth-century structure unreliable, and sug-

40 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO— The Basilica and the Rotunda 41

 89
Ousterhout, The 102
Church of Santo Stefano, Ibid, 8
311
gest that the story is but a retroactive invention was expressed through a loyalty to local Church, 103
Ibid, 138 embarked on a nocturnal journey (Isra) from Mec-
90
by the author.89 Furthermore, Ousterhout argues Ibid, 312 especially through the celebrations of legend 104
Morris, Bringing the
ca to “the further sanctuary” (al-Masjid al-Aqsa).106
that Santo Stefano’s combination of a central- 91
Introduction to ‘An that solidified the group around them.97 Indeed, Holy Sepulchre to the It is there that Muhammad meets Adam, Abra-
Iconography of Medieval West, 57
ly-planned domed structure, a porticoed court- Architecture’,
when St. Petronius—who had supposedly been ham, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus, before ascending
105
Sumption, Age of
yard and a series of reliquary chapels, constructs 92
to Jerusalem and had access to its monument— Pilgrimage, 168
to heaven.107 This mythical excursion ties the two
The ritual of mea-
a composition that is strikingly similar to the surement was a common became the new patron of the city, his grave was 106
cities together: the emerging religion with the
tradition amongst Quran, 17:1
version of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Jerusalem pilgrims. On
placed in the heart of the Bolognese Jerusalem, origin of monotheistic faith, and Muhammad
107
Montefiore,
eleventh century. Following its violent destruc- occasions, it presented in the centre of the tomb in Santo Stefano’s Holy Jerusalem, the Biography,
himself to the Biblical prophets.108 In 638 AD the
a condition in which the
tion in 1008 and prior to the wide reconstruction measurer was in solitude Sepulchre.98 205 Islamic forces entered Jerusalem, led by Caliph
with the monument, able
by the Crusaders in 1149, the complex on Golgotha to examine it and thus
In the following years, as Bologna would 108
Rubin, Uri, Omar ibn al-Khattab, one of Muhammad’s first
“Muhammad’s Night
had a brief moment of structural modesty: built by venerate it privately. be economically revived, the myth of Jerusalem Journey (isra’) to
converts. Entering the conquered city from the
The twelfth century
the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monoma- Russian monk Daniel as the foundation of the city will be crucial.99 al-Masjid al-Aqsa: south, Omar requested to see the remains of ‘Sol-
described his ritual: Aspects of the Earliest
chos in 1048, it included the Anastasis and the “as I then measured
Petronius’ supposed journey to earthly Jerusalem Origins of the Islamic omon’s Temple’, the first Jewish Temple which
Sanctity of Jerusalem,”
Atrium, but Constantine’s grand basilica was the tomb in length and created an explicit connection between the holy in Al Qantara 1 (Madrid,
has been destroyed in 587 BC by the King of Bab-
breadth and height, for
never rebuilt and instead, reliquary chapels were when people are present city and Bologna. With or without exact mea- January 2008): 148-164 ylon, and had since been replaced by the Herod’s
it is quite impossible to
built on the opposite edge of the Atrium.90 Hence, measure it.” - The Life
sures, a compositional logic was imported from 109
As Christ tells his project of the First Century and, again, destroyed
disciples: “You see all
Ousterhout argues that the basilica-less twelfth and Journey of Daniel, Jerusalem and implemented in Bologna, setting these, do you not? Truly,
by the Roman Legions in 70 AD. Notwithstanding
170-171, in Shalev, Zur,
century Santo Stefano was indeed inspired by the “Christian Pilgrimage the stage for an already-existing stational ritual I say to you, there will this historical discrepancy, what Omar found on
and Ritual Measurement not be left here one stone
structures in Jerusalem, but it couldn’t have been in Jerusalem” in Preprint
by making it visible and physical. The invention upon another that will the Herodian man-made plateau were ruins, as
not be thrown down.”
a fifth-century visit but an eleventh-century one 384 (Berlin: Max Planck of physical relics and a mythical story served Matthew 24:2
the site has been left neglected as Christian re-
Institute for the History
that provided the architectural guidelines. of Science, 2009), 6 the local civita of Bologna by placing it as true 110
minder of the fulfilment of Christ’s prophecy.109
Montefiore,
The striking similarity between the state 93
Ousterhout, Robert,
Jerusalem in the Medieval Sense: not a replica but Jerusalem, the Biography, In Seventh Century Jerusalem, Temple
211
of the Jerusalem complex between 1048 and 1149 “‘Sweetly Refreshed a structural analogy, distilling Jerusalem’s litur- Mount was left physically and symbolically out of
in Imagination’: 111
and the buildings in Santo Stefano strengthen Remembering Jerusalem gical vessels to implement its form of worship Elad, Amikam, the sacred topography of the city. Not only was
in Words and Images,” Medieval Jerusalem and
the claim that they were built in the twelfth in Gesta, Vol. 48, No.
in a European setting. The invention of a local Islamic Worship: Holy it not marked in any ritual, but the memories
Places, Ceremonies,
century, rendering the Vita Sancti Petronii myth- 2, Making Thoughts, collective memory that is tied to Jerusalem as an Pilgrimage (Brill, 1995):
associated with the site — such as the creation
Making Pictures, Making
ical at best. But it is important to consider the Memories: A (2009), ideal city was an essential part of the process of 44-46 of Adam and Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac —have
162-3
Medieval mind and its imaginary perception of fashioning Bologna as a powerful urban entity.100 112
Ibid been relocated and commemorated in the Church
94
truth: while not accurate in modern sense, the Hyde, J.K., Society In addition to serving as a landmark for the 113
Neuwirth, Angelica,
of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem’s new centre of
and Politics in Mediaeval
Vita portrays an irrepressible desire for a memory Italy (Palgrave local community, Santo Stefano could also cap- “The Spiritual Meaning spiritual gravity. When Omar and his men cleared
Macmillan, 1973), 38 of Jerusalem in Islam” in
that ties Bologna, physically and spiritually, to italize on its identity as Jerusalem by attracting Fig 7: Detail of Santo Stefano, Bologna ca. 12th Century (above) n City of the Great King: the debris off Temple Mount and set the Qibla
95 vs. Church of the Holy Sepulchre ca. 1048 AD Jerusalem from David
Jerusalem itself.91 The emphasis on Petronius’ use Ibid, 45, 74 pilgrims. During the height of the Middle Ages, Drawings (not to scale) by the author, after Robert to the Present ed Nitza
to Mecca, they were able to claim themselves as
of real measures obtained from Jerusalem (the 96 pilgrimage was no longer a personal exercise Ousterhout and Vincent & Abel Rosovsky (Cambridge, heirs to the Jewish sanctity of the place.110
The account of the
invention and list MA and London: Harvard
description of how he “carefully measured with of relics given in the
of faith, but an institutional practice of repent- University Press, 1996): Temple Mount became the focal point
93-99.
a rod” the shrines of Christ in Jerusalem) presents Sermo, cf. Lanzoni, S. ing sins.101 In a society ruled by the Church, an provided the possibility for salvation through of Muslim Jerusalem, where two sanctuaries
Petronio, 240-50; the list 114
St. Petronius as one who had privileged access begins with relics of the obsession with the torments of the afterlife was the remission of sins, given in the form of a reli- Elad, Medieval were built: the Dome of the Rock and the al
garments of Christ, the Jerusalem and Islamic
to the Holy Places: It is a ritual that is at once cord and column of the
constantly fed by the delicate balance between gious currency—indulgences—given to a sinner Worship, 46 Aqsa Mosque.111 Prayer took place in Al-Aqsa
engagement and appropriation: it is not only Flagellation, the wood sin and punishment. While it preached for an in return for confession, donation, or pilgrim- 115
A tenth-century
Mosque—a rectangular seven-aisled structure,
of the Cross, the Crown
about the acquired measurements, but the act of of Thorns, the key with earthly life of pious obedience, the Church also age.102 Measured in units of time, indulgences traveller wrote” Al which could accommodate up to 3,000 worship-
which He was confined, Muqaddasi: “This
measuring and thus making it one’s’ own.92 and His Sepulchre
served as a get-out-of-hell free card, awarding mosque is even more pers. To its north, and on the opposite direction
beautiful than that of
Indeed, St. Petronius and his mythical 97
days, months or years deducted from a sinner’s Damascus, for during
from Mecca, the monumental Dome of the
Similar traditions oc-
endeavours in fifth-century Jerusalem and curred in other medieval time in the fire of purgatory (the temporal place the building of it they Rock was completed in 692 AD by the Umayyad
italian rising civic cen- had for a rival and a
Bologna were to redeem the city at a time of ters: in Milan, Modena,
of judgement between heaven and hell). On the comparison the great Caliph Abd al-Malik in order to commemo-
Church… and they built
urban turmoil. A massive earthquake in 1117 and and Verona, saints from scale of indulgences, Jerusalem stood at the high- this one to be even more
rate Muhammad’s mythical journey to Allah.112
early Christianity were
the great fire of 1141 had left the city without a reincarnated as greater est rank.103 In that sense, Bologna succeeded in magnificent than the Octagonal in plan and crowned by a dome that
saviors of the city and other.” Mukaddasi,
Cathedral and a clear civic monument.93 Its urban were brought as town’s
becoming a substitute to Jerusalem: the monks Descriptions of Syria mimics the rotunda of the Church of the Holy
Including Palestine, 3:41,
revival began about a decade later and lasted for a patrons - Hyde, Society of the Celestial Order that had taken over the in Wharton, Annabel,
Sepulchre,113 the martyrium-like Dome of the
and Politics in Mediaeval
century, culminating in a period in which impe- Italy, 60 complex, published the indulgences provided for Selling Jerusalem Rock encircles an exposed fragment of the myth-
(Chicago: University of
rial forces were weakening and local civitas were 98
Ousterhout,
those making a pilgrimage to Santo Stefano as Chicago Press, 2006), 56 ical bedrock that is believed to be Muhammad’s
gaining power.94 In 1115, Bologna’s popolo were Flexible Topography similar to those traveling to the city itself.104 And 116
Montefiore,
point of dispatch to heaven.114 This coupling of a
and Transportable
granted royal protection of property and freedom Geography, 399 yet the ultimate remission of sins, the plenary Jerusalem, the Biography, basilical structure for massive prayer and a mem-
223
of trade across the kingdom; its land area grew 99
Ibid, 45, 74
indulgence, was only granted to one act: becom- ory-anchored centrally-planned structure bears
117
Prawer, Christian
from 23 to 100 hectares in the following centu- 100
ing a Crusade.105 a striking analogical resemblance to the nearby
Ousterhout,
ry.95 In that process, the role of Jerusalem as the Sweetly Refreshed in Church in Golgotha.115
foundation of the city through the construc- Imagination, 162-163
LONDON’S TEMPLE: A SOURCE In the following centuries Islam showed tol-
tion of an analogy was crucial; the invention of 101
John Sumption, WITH TWO TARGETS erance towards Christian rituals in the city, and
Age of Pilgrimage: the
the relics of St. Stephen, the rediscovery of St. Medieval Journey to God When the First Crusade captured Jerusalem in while the official language was changed from
(Paulist Press, 2003), 136
Petronius’ tomb and the introduction of his cult Fig 6: Bologna, plan, detail showing the relationship between 1099, the city had been under Islamic rule for over Greek to Arabic, the two religions maintained a
helped shape Bologna’s identity.96 As historian (1) Santo Stefano, (2) former location of S. Tecla, (3) S. Giovanni 400 years. Islam’s spiritual connection to Jerusa- relative peace by conserving the clear division
in Monte.Ousterhout, Robert, “The Church of Santo Stefano: A
J.K Hyde claims, during those years civic pride ‘Jerusalem’ in Bologna” lem is prescribed in the Quran, when Muhammad between the religious centres.116 However, these

42 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO— The Basilica and the Rotunda 43

 Attitude Towards
Jerusalem in the Early
Middle Ages, 339
conditions have changed in the Eleventh Century. Rock transformed into the “Temple of the Lord,”
118
Ibid
On the one hand, the destruction of the Church of attempting to bypass Islamic history and claim-
119
the Holy Sepulchre by the manic Caliph Hakim Ibid, 340 ing a direct connection to the days of Solomon
in 1008, the prosecution of Christians, and the 120
Halbwachs, On and the Kingdom of David.121
Collective Memory, 233
banning of Easter had stirred the Western accep- With their new appropriated Temple, the
121
tance of foreign rule of Jerusalem; at the same Wharton, Selling reinstated Church in Jerusalem created a calen-
Jerusalem, 57
time, the strengthening of religious sentiment dar of festivities that reflected their power over
122
Prawer, Joshua,
and the burden of sin have brought pilgrimage to The Latin Kingdom of
the city. An annual service traced a line between
earthly Jerusalem (and the quest for indulgences) Jerusalem: European the hills of Moriah and Golgotha in the form of
Colonialism in the Middle
back to popularity.117 Encouraged by the speech Ages (London: Weidenfeld a bishop-lead public procession between the
and Nicolson, 1972), 176
made by Pope Urban II in 1095 — who showed no Holy Sepulchre and the Templum Domini where a
123
reserves in advocating actual possession of the Halbwachs, On prayer was cited across from the former al Aqsa
Collective Memory, 234
city — the first Crusade was born.118 Leaving the Mosque.122 With the new monuments, the cele-
124
As described by
Pauline image of heavenly Jerusalem behind, the Baldric, Bishop of Dol-de-
brations of the liturgical year that was common
Crusaders headed for the Holy Land with faith Bretagne in Historiae in the entire Chrisindome was extended. On Palm
Hierosolymitanae libri IV,
and force.119 an eyewitness account Sunday, for example, palm and olive branches
of the First Crusade. 15f.
When the Crusaders entered Jerusalem, Quoted and translated
were blessed and distributed to the worship-
they had to relocalise Chrsitinity’s memories in by Prawer, Joshua, pers on the plateau of the Temple Mount, before
Christian Attitude
the city by constructing holy places. When pos- Towards Jerusalem in the they were lead to the valley of Josaphat where
Early Middle Ages, 343
sible, they relied on existing markers that could they met another procession bearing the Cross
125
have remained since the Constantinian project— Pauperes commili- from Bethany, after it was brought there early
tones Christi templique
or even the days of Christ—that could be adopted Salomonici in the morning from its chapel in Golgotha. The
and appropriated into Christiniaty.120 Thus, when 126
Nicholson, Helen J.,
joined procession returned to the Temple Mount
the Crusaders took over the city, it was not only “At the Heart of Medieval through the Golden Gate—which was opened 2
6
London: The New Temple
the Holy Sepulchre that had to be reclaimed in the Middle Ages” only once per year on this occasion—where they 1
in The Temple Church
from Islam but also the Temple Mount. The in London: History,
encircled the ‘Temple of Solomon’ (Mosque of
large Al Aqsa Mosque was renamed the “Temple Architecture, Art eds. al Aqsa) and finally ended with prayers in the 3
Robin Griffiths-Jones and
of Solomon,” and the octagonal Dome of the David Park (Woodbridge: Templum Domini. 5
The Boydell Press,
2010), 1
This theatrical ritual—which was greater
127
in length and geographical scope than any pro-
The monastic life of 4
a Templar was regulated cession that took place in the Fourth Century—
by a set of rules: Times
7
of meals, type of food,
included Scriptural references to the Old
the carrying of any Testament. Indeed, collective memory adapts
possession, sending and
receiving letters, cloth- itself to the contemporary needs of the group;
ing, and even speech was
limited. In appraisal of
in twelfth century Jerusalem, it was crucial for
their modest appearance the Christian rulers, in their efforts to eliminate
as monastic knights, the
rule dictates: You cover Islam’s legitmicity, to establish their direct gene-
your horses with silk,
and plume your armour
alogy from Judaism.123 As such, the Crusades,
with I know not what sort saw their war against Islam as analogous to the
of rags; you paint your
shields and your saddles; Israelites’ liberation from Egypt. The Bishop of
you adorn your bits and
spurs with gold and silver
Jerusalem at the time of the First Crusade, for
and precious stones, and example, preached to the camp from the Old
then in all this glory you
rush to your ruin with Testament: “it is our duty to pray, and it is your
fearful wrath and fearless
folly . . . . Do you think the
duty to fight the Amalekites. With Moses [...]
swords of your foes will you, intrepid fighters, thrust your sword into
be turned back by your
1 gold, spare your jewels or Amalek.”124 Their evocation of Solomon’s Temple
be unable to pierce your
silks? Wojtowicz, Robert
could connect Christ to David (Solomon’s father
T., The Original Rule of who was not just a religious leader, but a king of Fig 9: Jerusalem as the capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jersalem 1099-1087
the Knights Templar:
A Translation with the province of Judea). In that sense, Jerusalem, as Drawing by the author
Introduction (1991), 14 (1) Patriarch’s Quarter (2) Holy Sepulchre (3) Temple Street (4) Citadel (5) Temple Mount
the new capital of the Crusaders’ Latin Kingdom, (6) Golden Gate (7) Solomon’s Stables
128
Miele, Chris, “Gothic was at once a spiritual centre, a subject of monar-
Sign, Protestant Realia: army, in which Christ
Templars, Ecclesiologists chy, and a military headquarters. It is within this newly-appropriated space, was not the reason, but
en route to the Holy Land, who were perpetually
and the Round Churches
at Cambridge and
known to the Crusades as The Temple, that Chris- by human favour alone harassed by robbers.128 The order received Papal
you were drawn, to
2 London”, in Architectural tianity’s first monastic-military order was estab- constantly strive to join approval in 1126 from Honorius II, and thus
History, Vol. 53 (2010), the body of those whom
191 lished: the Templars. Officially called “the Poor God has chosen from the
became an official body of warrior-monks, living
129
The original rule
Knights of mChrist
0 meters 100 200 and the Temple of Solomon,”
125 mass of the damned and by faith and force.129 In the Temple Mount, the
has brought together for
of the Templars State: the Templars took an oath of chastity and pov- the defence of the holy Knights converted the mosque into a basilica, an
“Therefore, we exhort church through His kind
you, who until now have erty that was based on the Rule of St. Benedict.126 devotion.” - Wojtowicz,
armoury, and lodging; in the Dome of the Rock
embraced the secular
Fig 8: Temple Mount (Haram El-Sharif) Drawing by the author While monastic in character,127 the Order’s main The original Rule of the they built St James’ chapel and a sanctuary for
1 Temple of the Lord / Mosque of Omar (Dome of the Rock) Knights Templar, 26
2 Temple of Solomon / Al-Aqsa Mosque duty was military: to police and protect pilgrims Mary; beneath the Temple Mount, an existing e
130
Montefiore,
Jerusalem, the

44 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO—

Biography, 262
131
The Basilica and the Rotunda 45
Wharton, Selling

0m
0 50 100m
Fig 10: Precinct of the New Temple, London, ca. 1250
Drawing by the author, after Helen J. Nicholson
stone quarry was renamed the Stable of Solomon,
where thousands of horses and camels were kept;
and cisterns, cloisters, workshops, and gardens
were erected upon the plateau.130 Although they
were based on the Temple Mount, they neverthe-
less maintained a close connection to the Holy
Sepulchre by safeguarding the keys to the trea-
sure where the Holy Cross was kept.131
Back in the West, the Templars played a
major role in Crusading efforts by providing
two valuable resources: wealth and manpow-
er.132 Notoriously wealthy,133 the Order acted as
a depository of royal treasures or moneylenders,
collecting alms in gold, jewellery, and land.134
Essentially, the Templars were powerful bankers:
for example, they loaned money to King Baldwin
in order to secure a relic of the True Cross, and in
1215 they loaned King John 1,100 marks to obtain
troops.135 By mobilising funds and goods from
the West to the East, their rise to power coincided
with the monetisation of Europe in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, and were contem-
porary to the development of the urban realm.
Indeed, the Templars recognised the economic
advantage of the city and treated it as a source
of income by receiving land from the Church and
renting it to the elite. Between the immunity
obtained from the Pope and the exemption from
taxation awarded by the Monarchy, the Templars
had accumulated a vast amount of revenue; this
had to be stored with an adequately monumen-
tal structure that would serve a visual reminder
not only of their wealth, but also of the symbolic
and literal possession of their origin and custody:
Jerusalem.
46
Jerusalem, 84 London: The Cities
of London and
132
Ibid, 93 Westminster, (the
The Templars arrived in London, one of the the columns, which continue from the Round Buildings of England) the choir is distinctly local: she compares it to the
133
“they are said to (Harmondsworth, 1973),
have vast possessions,
West’s most powerful secular centres, in 1128.136 into the choir in Purbeck marble piers— each 315
Trinity chapel in Salisbury Cathedral (1220), the
both on this side of By 1144 they were given a site in Holborn, on a consisting of four shafts that are connected to 146
Castle Hall of Henri III in Winchester (1222-1236),
the sea and beyond. Jansen, Light and
There is not a province former Roman road, where they built their first the arcade arches and the vault’s ribs— that are Pure:51 and the Archbishop Chapel at Lambeth Palace; all
in the Christian world
today that does not
church.137 In 1161, the expansion of the Order placed at regular intervals. The slenderness of 147
Viollet le Duc,
these examples employ a similar use of columns,
bestow some part of its had led the Templars to move to a new location the supports creates a structural lightness that Eugène, Dictionnaire lancet windows, and Purbeck marble.148 In fact,
possessions upon these Raisonné du Architectura
brethren, and their given by King Henri II (1154-1189) on the banks is enhanced by the shallowness of the arcades Française (1854) 9:13, the Choir’s stylistic elements are reminiscent of
property is reported to translated by Annabel
be equal to the richest of
of the Thames, just off the River Fleet between (concealing the thickness of the upper walls, Wharton in Selling
those undertaken in southern England under
kings.” -William of Tyre, Ludgate and Westminster.138 On the Thames, the carried by the arcades carry).144 Considering the Jerusalem, 88 the patronage of the king in the 1220s, and the
A History of Deeds Done
Beyond the Sea, (1170 - Templars had both access to transportation and use of the elements, the choir was perceived as a 148
Jansen, Virginia, construction of the Temple’s choir began just as
1184), 524-526 Light and Pure: The
the prestige of the river exposure.139 This reloca- non-hierarchical space, almost a field condition; Templar’s New Choir, 49
Henri III decided to be buried there in 1231, when
134
Joshua prawer quot- tion to a new site only two decades after the con- and, with a width-to-length ratio of 3:2, it was 149
a generous grant was offered to the Order, most
ed in Wharton, Selling Ibid, 48
Jerusalem, 66 struction of their first Church (the Old Temple) a building hailed by Nikolaus Pevsner as “one likely to rebuild their then-modest choir.149
150
Ibid, 65
135
A History of the
proves the Order’s success in acquiring funds of the most perfect and proportioned buildings However, I would argue that these simi-
151
County of London: and their desire to showcase their power. The of thirteenth century England, airy yet sturdy, Nicholson, At larities are strictly stylistic and ignore the spa-
Volume 1, London Within the Heart of Medieval
the Bars, Westminster Templars’ new site was an enclaved precinct that generous in all its spacing, but disciplined and London: The New Temple tial, compositional, or analogical relationship to
and Southwark (pub- in the Middle Ages, 3
lished London: Victoria
was protected from the city by walls and gates,140 very sharply put together.”145 It was a modest Jerusalem. When Jansen writes that “[any] dis-
152
County History, 1909) where they built gardens, courtyards and lodg- structure, with an overall lack of decoration that Ibid, 4 tant allusions to typologies in Jerusalem can be
136
Ibid ing for three groups: The fully-professed knights, resonated with the order’s (initial) monastic 153
Ibid, 5 surmised” and that “the hall-church choir bears
137
Nicholson, At the
the non-professed armourers (who were their character.146 154
Williamson, Bruce
no readily comprehensible relationship to struc-
Heart of Medieval domestic servants) and the ordained priests, who The mnemonic association between the J., The History of the tures in Jerusalem,”150 she ignores the function of
London: The New Temple
in the Middle Ages, 1 were appointed by the knights.141 At the center of Round and the Anastasis Rotunda was clear. the two structures and the dynamic relationship
138
Quash, Ben,
the precinct was the Temple Church: the order’s As argued by Krautheimer, the construction between them. In fact, the ritualisation of these
and Rosen, Aaron, focal point, it was a place for the celebration of of a round church could easily be accepted in two spaces by the Templars, priests, and pilgrims
Visualising a Sacred City:
London, Art and Religion mass, the conducting of business, the royal trea- Medieval times as a referent to Jerusalem, and are analogical to the ones practiced in Jerusalem.
(London: I.B.Tauris,
2016)
sury, and a source of revenue from pilgrims. Eugene Viollet le Duc had specifically identified This analogy may not be a visual one (a “superfi-
139
Following the idea of analogy, I argue that this type of churches with the Templars: “one cial” analogy), but its compositional similarities
Wilson, Christopher,
“Gothic Architecture the Temple Church became a target of a source that gave the name of Temples, during the Middle (a “structural” analogy) nevertheless bear a strik-
Transplanted: the Nave
of the Temple Church in
had now changed: it did not only refer structur- Ages, to chapel of the commanderies of the ing resemblance to the structures in Jerusalem.
London” in The Temple ally to the relationship between the basilica and Templars; these chapels were habitually built Much like the Holy Sepulchre complex in
Church in London:
History, Architecture, rotunda in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but on a circular plan, as a reminder [souvenir] of the Jerusalem and Santo Stefano in Bologna, the
Art eds.Robin Griffiths-
Jones and David Park
also to the composition of the two shrines on Holy Sepulchre.”147 What then of the choir — the Temple Church in London served the liturgical
(Woodbridge: The Temple Mount, the former mosque-cum-basilica longitudinal building attached to the central- needs of both its local population and of visit-
Boydell Press, 2010), 23
and the domed-octagon. The ritualisation of these ly-planned church, a counter horizontal move- ing pilgrims. As an institutionalised order, the
140
Wharton, Selling
Jerusalem, 79
spaces will be explored below as a new analogous ment to the clearly-vertical Round? According to Templars spent their time away from prayers not
141
Jerusalem came to rise in London, appropriating historian Virginia Jansen, as much as the Round only by collecting alms and rent, but also by par-
Honeybourne, B.,
“The Templar Precinct in not only Jerusalem’s spiritual aura, but also its is an obvious typological import from Jerusalem, ticipating in Chapter meetings.151 These official
the Days of the Knights”
in Ancient Monument
economic power and political charisma.
Society Vol. 16 (1968- Like in Jerusalem, the Temple Church
1969), 34
is composed of two distinct components: A
142
Billings, Robert
W., Architectural
rotunda, also called the “Round”, and a recten-
Illustrations and Account gular choir. In the Round, an inner ring of six
of the Temple Church,.
(London, 1838), 9 marble piers, each consisting of a cluster of four
143
Jansen, Virginia,
columns, is encircled by a lower vaulted ambu-
"Light and Pure: The latory. Above the central space, eight arched
Templars' New Choir,"
The Temple Church in windows punctured the thick mass of the drum,
London: History, Art and
Architecture, eds. David
which is supported by exterior buttresses.142 The
Park and Robin Griffith- Round was consecrated in 1185, and only half a
Jones, London: Boydell
Press, 2010, 45 century later, with the presence of King Henry III
144
Wilson, Gothic
in 1240, a rectangular choir was added to its east.143
Architecture Replacing a former aisless chancel, it was a Hall-
Transplanted, 25
Church type, containing a central nave and two
145
Pevsner, Nikolaus,
aisles that terminate in a raised altar on the flat
wall of the east edge, the opposite side of the
Round. The nave and aisles are topped by ribbed
pointed arches that rise to an equal height; this
means that, unlike a basilica, there are no clere-
story windows above the nave, and light instead
is diffused equally in the interior by triple-lancet
Fig 11: Floor plan of the Temple Church, London.
windows. Uniformity can also be identified in Drawing by the author
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO— The Basilica and the Rotunda 47

gatherings took place every Sunday, Christmas,
Easter, and Pentecost in the Temple Church,
and in particular within the Round, where the
brothers would sit in a circle against the walls.152
The Round would also serve as the backdrop
for another distinctively Templar activity, the
infamous initiation ceremonies. These cyclical
rituals were divided into two stages: the first
would take place in the choir, the relatively public
realm, where the novice would be surrounded by
his family and friends. Then, only the brothers
would escort him in a procession into the Round,
where the candidate said his vows of chastity and
poverty to God and the Order.153 Hence, there
was a clear hierarchical distinction between the
basilical space of the choir, where all believers
were invited to partake in service, and the Round,
where only those accepted into the order could
enter during a specific ritual. This is clearly anal-
ogous to the relationship in Jerusalem between
the Basilica and Rotunda, replicating the spatial
manifestation of the community’s hierarchy that
is described by Egeria.
The weekly mass was attended not only by
the brothers, but also by officials of the crown
who were in the precinct to conduct business
and, of course, pilgrims. The latter were fre-
quent, as the Pope granted indulgences (the
deduction of sixty days in purgatory) for those
who visited the church annually.154 Its location
between Westminster and St. Paul’s meant that
the Temple Church was easily accessible on the
pilgrim’s route through the city, and its display
of relics from Jerusalem, such as wood from the
cross and the blood of Christ, assured its pop-
ularity.155 Inside the church, the two distinct
focal points—the Round on the west and the
altar at the eastern wall of the choir—created an
ambivalent hierarchy of space. As such, when the
Eucharist was performed in the altar, the congre-
gation had to turn its back on the Round.156 This
means that the sequential quality of Jerusalem’s
complex—from the propylaea through the basil-
ica, the atrium and finally the Anastasis— did
Fig 12: Section, Temple Church, London
not translate coherently to London, where the
entrance was in the southern edge, and those
who enter the church are positioned directly
between two focal points. This disorienting
setting is further enhanced by the fact that the
48
Temple, London: From
the Institution of the
Order of the Knights of
the Temple to the Close Round lacks a central element—its ring of inner
of the Stuart Period piers does not surround one but several graves
(London: John Murray
1924), 11 in the form of effigies of knights, that mark the
155
Jansen, Light and knights’ cemetery below.157
Pure: The Templar’s New While there is a clear analogical relation-
Choir, 65
ship to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in terms
156
Wharton, Selling
Jerusalem, 84 of the service’s hierarchy and visual similarity
157 of the Round, there is also a similarity that can
Ibid, 85
be drawn from the Temple Mount—where the
158
Billings,
Architectural Templar Order was founded. In terms of compo-
Illustrations and Account sition, the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque
of the Temple Church, 7
are both placed on either side of a vast platform
159
Wharton, Selling
Jerusalem, 88 along the same axis, but the location of the Qibla,
160 towards the East, orients the worshippers away
Jansen, Virginia,
Light and Pure: The from the Dome. The Temple’s choir is similar to
Templar’s New Choir, 52
the field condition created in the Temple Mount,
with its uniform field of marble piers, evenly-dif-
fused light and diminished hierarchy between
the naves. In that sense, the Temple Church is an
analogical target with two sources, encapsulat-
Fig 14: Left: Temple of the Lord or Mosque Dome of the Rock
Right: Temple of Solomon or Al Aqsa Mosque
Drawings by the author
The fact that the actual Temple of Solomon was 161 According to Annabel Wharton, this “inscription
Wharton, Selling
gone for over fifteen-hundred years when the Jerusalem, 94 of an eastern presence into a western urban land-
Crusades captured its site and the lack of physical scape uncannily corresponded to the Templar’s
traces to supply both “archetypical [and] material role in the West’s increasing familiarity with
models” did not matter to Billings or to the Tem- money and its abstraction.”161 Indeed, during the
plars. Connecting the Templars to Solomon and economic expansion of Europe’s cities, the body
Fig 13: Seal of the Knights Templar—Dome of the Rock, the Holy
Sepulchre, or the Temple of Solomon thus to the dynasty of Hebrew Monarch was cru- in charge of transferring capital from the West to
cial for the narrative of Christian victory, which the occupation of the East celebrated its victory
ing the fluidity of memory when it comes to the finally united the earthly and heavenly Jerusalem. through the image of the city of Jerusalem. The
recollection of Jerusalem after the Crusades. Before the final assault on Jerusalem in 1099, the Temple then appropriated Jerusalem’s sacrality
Indeed, from its very moment of foundation on Duke of Normandy told his soldiers: “Here you see through institutionalised force exploited the
the non-existing Temple of Solomon, it seems as the cause of all our labours. This Jerusalem is the city’s political charisma in order to construct a
though the Anastasis Rotunda and the Dome of reflection of the heavenly Jerusalem. This city has house for their accumulated capital, a monument
the Rock were interchangeable, both in appear- the form of the city to which we aspire [...] this of their political power, and a vessel for their mo-
ance, symbolic value, and historical tradition. Jerusalem you see, which you face, prefigures and nastic faith.
The Templar’s seal, depicting a decorated dome represents the heavenly city.”
atop an arched drum, was cited by historians as This patrimonial and physical possession
both the Holy Sepulchre and the Temple Mount; of united Jerusalem was readily translated into
while an attempt to prove either can prove the the urban realm of London, where the Templars THE INTELLIGENCE
original intentions, it seems irrelevant. Modern embedded their metaphor of power in London’s OF ANALOGY
authors are not dissimilar: in his Architectural Il- urban fabric, reminding locals and visitors of If we return to the definition of analogy by Ag-
lustrations and Account of the Temple Church (1838) the their privileged position both in the East, as rul- amben, we will learn that his reading of Aristotle
Nineteenth Century British architect Robert W. ers of the Holy City, and in the West, as tightly defines analogy not as an induction nor a reduc-
Billings writes of the Temple’s origin: connected to the monarchy.159 The analogy was tion, but a transfer of intelligibility from one singu-
constructed by utilising a stylistic framework lar to another singular. Within this framework,
“The Temple Church, Built and instituted by the Templars that resonates with the Southern-England royal understanding Bologna and London as analogous
in London, was a copy (varied doubtless in many of its and noble patronage of the government, while Jerusalem can be seen through the transfer of
details) from the Temple at Jerusalem, of which the pur- incorporating a spatial logic that was imported the specific intelligibility of Jerusalem—from
pose of their institution as a military order gave them the from Jerusalem’s mobile and hierarchical litur- its hierarchical spatial compositions within the
possession and guardianship. Of that Temple at Jerusalem, gy.160 This transfer was not restricted to a singular church across the services to a city-wide distri-
the preceding Temple of Solomon supplied beyond any monument, a sacred icon or a symbolic element, bution of monuments—into the Western urban
question the archetypical, if not material model158” but as a complex of scriptural and contemporary realm, where the analogy played a crucial role in
references that were distinctively urban. the local development of religious power, civic
identity, and economy.
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO— The Basilica and the Rotunda 49
 The spatial logic discussed in this chapter
is not only analogous to specific monuments in
urban Europe, but is also embodied in the life of a
Christian pilgrim and the tension in the Christian
religion at large. The perpetual movement
between the centrifugal and the axial is embed-
ded in every stage of the pilgrim’s journey—a
directional horizontal movement versus defined
points of rest, or a passive participation in a mass
congregation versus an inward focus on personal
meditation. This configuration also embodies the
contradiction in the founding principles of the
church—the university of St Paul and his follow-
ers, embodied in the egalitarian rotunda, versus
the hierarchical structure of power, developed
since the second century, expressed in the linear
composition of the basilica. In the Renaissance,
architects attempted to solve this tension by
designing churches that were both centralised
and axial, such as the Santissima Annunziata
in Florence by Leon Battista Alberti and San
Bernardino in Urbino by Francesco di Giorgio. The
latter exemplifies the ultimate abstraction of the
basilica and rotunda, combining a wide transept
with a centralised plan, the dome supported only
by four monumental columns. The plan of San
Bernardino shows how, with imagination and
abstraction, archetypal concepts can be resolved
in an innovative design, where universality and
charisma for political and economic gain. In oth-
er words, the intelligence of analogical thinking
has been utilised as a form of control over those
who seek to locate their memories, who saw this
spiritual desire as an opportunity for the transfer
(and division) of power from one epicenter to its
analogies.
While analogical thinking is not innocent,
it should nevertheless be noted for its embedded
potential in the field of sacred space. Behind the
idea of the analogy we find an incredible imagi-
native capability that sees the notion of “real” as
flexible and adaptable. Considering the violent
wars that wage over sacred space, the value of
alternative sanctuaries could not be overstated.
Rather than searching for a singular site of objec-
tive authenticity, analogies allow for a prolifera-
tion of subjective truths that relieve the need for
territorial specificity. Memories that were ini-
tially located in Jerusalem could then travel and
multiply, creating temporalities for those seeking
affective recollection, so long as the orientation of
structures, landscape and rituals remains towards
Jerusalem.

Fig 16: Temple Church of the Knights Templars (1185 AD) Inss of Court, City of
London. Photo by the author, 2019

figure 15: San Bernardino in Urbino by Francesco di Giorgio

(1482-1491)

hierarchy are not in conflict but coincide in a

spatial arrangement that derives meaning from
their tension.
Indeed, the intelligence of analogical thinking is
not confined to the transfer of spatial relations,
but of a sociospatial system of rituals. As such,
when this system was abstracted from its origin
in Jerusalem into the metropolitan centers of
urbanising Europe, it replicated not only a struc-
tural composition but a hierarchical system of
Christian recollection. This geographical re-dis-
tribution of collective memories to analogous Je-
rusalems provided pilgrims with an easier path to
recollection, while subjecting its faculty to mul-
tiple bodies of power that exploited its spiritual

50 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER TWO— The Basilica and the Rotunda 51

 C HAP T E R T H R E E

STATION TO STATION
THEATRICALITY AND DISCIPLINE
OF THE VIA CRUCIS IN THE SACRED around the employment and restriction of theat-
ricality, this chapter will study one of the most
MOUNTAIN OF VARALLO radical renditions of the Stations of the Cross—
the Sacri Monti (sacred mountains), erected as
1
The Stations of the Cross, also called the Via Crucis (1) Jesus is condemned strongholds of Catholic piety in the Italian Alps
to death, (2) he is made
(Way of the Cross), is one of the most common to bear his cross, (3) he during the crucial decades of Protestant reform.
falls the first time, (4)
rituals in the Catholic church. It consists of a se- he meets his mother,
Specifically, it will explore the inception, destruc-
quence of numbered stations that commemorate (5) Simon of Cyrene is tion, and reconstruction of the first example
made to bear the cross,
Christ’s Passion, encompassing the sentencing, (6) Veronica wipes of such religious complexes: the Sacro Monte
Jesus’ face, (7) he falls
crucifixion, and entombment of Jesus. Today, the the second time, (8) the
di Varallo (1491), which became a laboratory of
Stations of the Cross have been standardised and women of Jerusalem artistic experimentation aimed at disciplining
weep over Jesus, (9)
conceptualised both in their appearance and in he falls the third time, religious representations and taming excessive
(10) he is stripped of
their ritual protocol. Typically, there are fourteen his garments, (11) he is
affectivity. Indeed, by the end of the turbulent
stations:1 each one is numbered, marked with nailed to the cross, (12) sixteenth century, Varallo had undergone a
he dies on the cross, (13)
a wooden cross, and arranged along a circuit at he is taken down from radical disciplinary process: its artistic program
the cross, and (14) he is
intervals of a distance relative to the scale of the placed in the sepulchre.
was recreated under a new visual regime that
site.2 Usually located along the aisles of Catholic 2
encapsulated the moral and theological reform of
Thurston, Herbert, The
churches, in monastic cloisters, or across an Stations of the Cross: an the Catholic church. Devout, decent, and direct,
account of their history
urban quarter, the stations must be followed as and devotional purpose
Varallo’s art modelled an abundance of restraint
a single devotional sequence.3 The movement (London: Burns and not only in the use of images, but also in its tol-
Oates, 1914), 175
between stations is a crucial element in the rit- erance for imagination, physical movement, and
3
The Catholic
ualised re-enactment of the Passion: it heightens Encyclopaedia. Vol.
Christian behaviour. Varallo thus became a blue-
the recollection of events that occurred in the 10. New York: Robert print for stational devotion: the critical purge
Appleton Company, 1911
Holy Land by embodying their spatial dispersion of theatricality brought to prominence a count-
4
McNamer, Sarah,
across a broad sacred topography. Affective Meditation
er-belief in legibility, which ultimately shaped
The underlying mechanism of the Via Crucis and the Invention of the coherent Catholic ritual we know today.
Medieval Compassion
derives from the paradoxic nature of the station (Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania Press,
as a sign that marks a stop in order to perpet- 2009), 11
uate movement. These periodic stoppages are 5
Peters, F. E., “The
instrumental in unravelling the Christological Procession That Never ORIGIN OF THE STATIONS
narrative and dividing it into fragments that are Was: The Painful Way
in Jerusalem” in The
OF THE CROSS
easier to grasp as episodes. The re-enactment of Drama Review Vol. 29, While the stations embody collective memories
No. 3, Processional
the Passion, a violent event full of tragedy and Performance anchored in Jerusalem’s sacred topography, they
(Cambridge: The MIT
drama, maintains a degree of control by choreo- Press, 1985), 40
belong to a ritual of recollection infused with a
graphing the narrative as a serial progression of medieval sense of piety rooted in monastic or-
emotions, formulating a mode of spirituality that ders and processional liturgies in the West.5 In
is inherently theatrical. Theatrical, indeed, as
each station must be staged, like a scene, through
time, space, and text; theatrical, as the compo-
sitional relationship on the plane of interaction
(the frame of a picture, the boundaries of a stage,
the edge of a bas-relief or the viewing hole of a
tableau) is directed towards a captive audience, and
it harbours emotional excess that is known from
theater.4
This theological strategy was mobilised by
the Franciscan Order in the late Middle Ages,
but by the sixteenth century its legitimacy was
being undermined by figures of the Reformation,
who saw its embedded theatricality as a risk. This
gave rise to a debate around the use of images in
Fig 1: Easter Friday procession in the Sacro Monte di Varallo.
religious representation. To explore this dispute Photo by the author, 2019

CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 53

 6
Thurston, The Stations
of the Cross, 21
Jerusalem, the Stations of the Cross are known 7
Ibid, 175
today as the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering), lead- 8
Francis of Assisi visited
ing from the Arch of Ecce Homo (where Christ was the holy land between
1219 and 1220. During
trialled) to Calvary (where he was crucified). The his visit, he did not only
first documented pilgrimage through this route “listen to the voice that
spring from the stones”
took place at the end of the thirteenth century, of Jerusalem, but he
also met with the Sultan
though a definitive route was established only Melek al-Kamel and
in the fifteenth century.6 The precedent for this established a peaceful
relationship with the
route, wrote a pilgrim in 1384, was the Virgin local Muslim leader.
This dialogue formed the
Mary’s own pilgrimage between “the sites of her basis for the Franciscan
son’s last days in Jerusalem.”7 Somewhat perplex- presence in the Holy
Land in the centuries to
ingly, this Passion-led route did not follow the come, until today.—web-
site of the Custodia Terra
topographical locations of Christ’s real journey Sancta, https://www.
in Jerusalem, but oscillated between places of custodia.org/en/custo-
dy-and-its-history
veneration that were enabled by Jerusalem’s
9
In 1363 the Franciscans
conditions. The itinerary of the Via Crucis was obtained an edict
neither geographically nor scripturally accurate, from the Sultan of
Egypt; in 1430, they
but derived from a geopolitical reality in Mamluk finally received special
autonomy as a province
Jerusalem. Indeed, since the fall of Acre, the last that included Syria and
Crusader’s stronghold in the Holy Land, in 1291, Jaffa; finally, in 1517,
they assumed complete
Christian territoriality had been suppressed in custody of the Holy
Land. Their growing
Palestine by the local regime, and the movement power came to a halt in Fig 3: A series of distinct locations, connected with a path and Fig 4: A page from The Itineraries of William Wey (c.1458-1463
of Christian visitors was limited. 1517 with the arrival of annotated with meditations. AD) showing the fourteen Stations of the Cross, Loca Sancta in
the Ottoman Empire to Map of Palestine by William Wey (c.1458-1463 AD) Stacionibus Jerusalem as a separate ritual from the rest of the Holy
Yet even under Islamic rule in Palestine, Palestine. and time: not only was it confined to sites under Places of Jerusalem

Christian presence in the Holy Land was not 10

Such as the chapel of
their supervision, but these localities could be
13
completely eradicated, maintaining its conti- the Cross in the Church seen only in passing, on a hurried tour, often in conjured up the backdrop of Christ’s first-century Peters, The Procession a halting-place in a procession) first appeared in
of the Holy Sepulchre. That Never Was, 36 (my
nuity through the work of the Third Order of From the second half the early hours of the morning.12 As such, the Jerusalem to reframe the contemporary locations. italics) the narrative of the English pilgrim William Wey
of the 14th century,
the Franciscans. The Order’s founder, St Francis the Franciscans were
possibility of contemplation at each station did The Dominican friar Felix Fabri, who travelled to 14
Ibid
in 1462 as a spiritual exercise that was complete
of Assisi, visited the holy sites in the 1210s on a in charge of guiding not permit the rituals, meditations, and dramatic the Holy Land in 1480, described being led in a 15
in itself.16
instructing and caring Pylgrymage of Sir
mission that was spiritual as well as political, for Latin pilgrims in the re-enactments that were characteristic features group by a Franciscan guide through the route Richard Guylforde However tiring their journeys, the pilgrims
Holy Land, and guarding (1506), 18, translated
aiming to create diplomatic ties by meeting and maintaining the
of the Jerusalem experience. where “[Christ] was led out of the city along that into modern English
who wrote these detailed manuscripts of Christ’s
with the local Sultan.8 A century later, in 1324, rituals of the catholic Despite these constraints, the Franciscans path burdened with the heavy cross.”13 Along this by Wharton, Selling suffering in Jerusalem made no pious displays
shrines in the holy Jerusalem, 113–114
the unarmed Franciscans replaced the Crusades’ land: the grottos of increased the popularity of the Stations by infus- journey, they stopped at places where Jesus “fell of compassion. In fact, a study of pilgrim logs of
16
the Nativity, the Holy Thurston, The
military expeditions and became the official Sepulchre and Calvary,
ing their limited space in imaginative ways. beneath the load of the cross, or [was] assailed by Stations of the Cross,
Passion-led devotion in Jerusalem reveals little
custodians of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. the site of flagellation: a Using a pietist mechanism of emotional devo- some special outrage, [or] where he was scourged 45-6 sign of emotion: the main contents include a list
growing number of sites
Over the next two centuries, the monastic order since when Constantine tion that originated in the monastic West, the and crowned.”14 In 1506, Sir Richard Guylforde 17
Taking measures was of places visited, distances between stations, costs
established them in a part of the growing ter-
would gradually obtain control over additional the 4th century. Now
Franciscan guides narrated the sites of Mamluk likewise wrote that he “visited all the long way by ritorial tendencies of the
of travel, and even observations on the behaviour
sites in and around the Holy City from the rulers included Mount Tabor, Jerusalem with vivid verbal descriptions that which our Saviour Christ was led from the house Franciscans. Measuring of locals, but no affection or personal reactions
Nazareth, Tiberius, and was made in paces, out
of neighbouring provinces.9 By establishing an Capernaum. of Pilate to the place of the Crucifixion”, visit- of fear, and was often felt by the pilgrim.17 This uniform authorial voice
measured from Pilate’s
earthly foothold with monasteries and convents, 11
Lufta, Hudi, Al Quds
ing locations where Christ “had suffered many house through the vari-
reflects local prohibitions on displaying such
while also expanding existing shrines with cha- al Mamlukyya: A History injuries”, “took a hit from the bishop’s servants,” ous stations and finally emotions along the journey to Calvary, according
of Mamluk Jerusalem to Calvary. The first
pels and crypts, they aimed to facilitate recol- based on the Haram “was scorned, his face covered and bloodied,” pilgrim who recorded to a sixteenth-century pilgrim: “we had no more
Documents, 136 his measurements was
lection in a way they (and future pilgrims) knew and “most egregiously beaten.”.15 These dramatic Martinus Polonus in
consolation than just to see them as we passed
12
from liturgical patterns in the West.10 Peters, The Procession descriptions transformed ‘empty’ topographic 1422. However technical on our way, since it is not permitted to make any
That Never Was, 37 these may seem, there
The Franciscans took over another cru- locations into a theatrical sequence of encoun- was never a uniformity halt nor to pay veneration to them with uncov-
in the distance, which
cial role from the Crusaders (in particular, the ters, a spectacle projected onto the city through varied from 450 paces to
ered head, nor to make any other demonstration,
Knights Templar), becoming the sole providers affective imagination. Emotionally and phys- 1320 in records written nor to look at them fixedly, nor to write nor take
between 1422 to 1611.
of care and instruction for pilgrims in Jerusalem. ically exhausting, these organised tours were Thurston, Herbert, The any notes in public.”18
Stations of the Cross: an
Exercising the privileges given to them by the incredibly difficult for many pilgrims. Guylforde, account of their history
Indeed, in Jerusalem itself, any form of out-
Mamluks, the Franciscan promoted Holy Land for example, died from exhaustion six days after and devotional purpose ward compassion was forbidden, as can be seen
(London: Burns and
pilgrimage for essentially the same purposes that arriving in Jerusalem. Oates, 1914); Miedema, in the pilgrimage of Margory Kempe, the only
Nine, “Following in the
had brought Egeria to Jerusalem one millennium This ritualisation of urban movement Footsteps of Christ:
known woman in the early modern period to
before: to visit the holy places associated with through stops and regular intervals of move- Pilgrimage and Passion write such an account. In 1413, after buying her
Devotion," in The Broken
Christ’s earthly life. But while Egeria was able to ment formed the core of the canonical fourteen Body, Passion Devotion freedom from her husband and their fourteen
in Late-Medieval
roam Constantine’s Jerusalem and join city-wide Stations of the Cross. Though the route had varied Culture, ed. MacDonald,
children, Kempe embarked on a Franciscan-led
processions, the Islamic-ruled city prevented significantly over time in terms of arrangement, Ridderbos, Schlusemann journey of extreme piety. In Calvary, she cried “in
(Groningen: John
spiritual travellers from moving freely: instead, number of stations, and distances, the Via Crucis Benjamins Publishing a loud voice, as though her heart would break”; in
Co, 1998), 78
they were led around by a Franciscan monk gradually separated into a distinct geographical Bethlehem, she showed such excessive devotion
Fig 2: The Station of the Cross [in two parts] 18
within a limited territory.11 The ritual facilitated according to Giovanni Zuallardo
and spiritual entity in every pilgrim’s visit to Zuallardo, Giovanni. through weeping and sobbing that her fellow
Devotissimo Viaggio Di
by the Franciscans was thus limited both in space Jerusalem. In fact, the word station (in a sense of Gerusalemme (1587), 381 travellers would not let her eat in their company.19

54 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 55

 19 29
The Book of Margory Ibid
Kemp, eds. Stanford
30
Brown Meech and Hope Derbes, Picturing the
Kempe’s outward reaction to her imaginative Emily Alles, (London,
This humble staging of a grandiose event echoed Passion in Late Medieval
claiming that images are necessary in order to
visualisation was not only unusual in Jerusalem, 1940), 68, 73 the humility of not only the Franciscan spirit, Italy, 25 transform the “sensible things which they see”
but also inappropriate; it reflected a pious activ- 20
Derbes, Anne, but also the ‘real’ scene that occurred, according 31
Bonaventure’s (1221- into “the intelligible which they cannot see.”31
Picturing the Passion 1274) defence of religious
ity Kempe knew from the West, an outpouring of in Late Medieval Italy:
to Franciscan mentality, in Bethlehem itself. The art: “[images] were
However, it is crucial to understand that repre-
truly compassionate devotion that was unthink- Narrative painting, praesepi thus rid the sacred scenery of its formerly made for the simplicity sentation itself, mental visualisation, and con-
Franciscan Ideologies of the ignorant, so that
able in Jerusalem itself. Indeed, an immersive and the Levant, stiff, petrified, and lifeless character, and brought the uneducated who are templative meditation were never the primary
(Cambridge: Cambridge unable to read scripture
recollection of Christ’s route to salvation could University Press, 1996),
it to life, ushering a new era of realism. With its can, through statues
goal of Passion meditation—the visualisation of
only be exercised away from the political and 7 humanist overtones of humility, forgiveness, and and paintings of this the Passion was just the means to another end.
kind, read about the
geographical constraints of earthly Jerusalem, 21
Promenades kindness, this new realism embodied the Fran- sacraments of our faith Whether through guided movement in Mamluk
archéologiques: Rome et [… ] They were introduced
making it the least plausible place to practise the Pompéi, 129
ciscan mentality that culminated, one century because of the sluggish-
Jerusalem, a staged scene with animals and hay,
Stations of the Cross. 22
later, with Giotto’s Italian painting.29 ness of the affections, a frame-by-frame narrative painting, or an inter-
Despres, Denise, so that men who are not
The efforts of the Franciscans to accommo- “Franciscan Spirituality: aroused to devotion when nal visualisation of Christ’s bleeding body, the
Margery Kempe and they hear with the ear
date pilgrimage in Jerusalem mirrored the Order’s Visual Meditation” in about those things which
embodiment of the Passion was but a stepping-
laborious activities and ideological tendencies Mystics Quarterly 11, no. Christ had done for us all stone towards spiritual ascension. In the words
1 (Penn State University will at least be inspired
in the West. The projection of the Passion onto Press, 1985), pp. 12-18 when they see the same of Gregory the Great (599 AD): “When you see an
things in figures present,
the urban space of Jerusalem by the Franciscan 23
Bonaventure, Lignum as it were, to their bodily
image of Him [Christ] you are inflamed in your
guides was based on the order’s central aim to Vitate (the Tree of Life, eyes. For our emotion is soul with love for Him whose picture you wish to
ca. 1300), 158 aroused more by what
bring religion into everyday reality, to stage the is seen than by what is see. We do no harm in trying to show the invisible
24
The Franciscans heard. Lastly, they were
events of Christ’s life and death within a famil- laboured on spreading introduced on account of
by means of the visible.”32 Though we are unable to
Fig 5: Enrico di Tedice, Painted Cross
iar setting, a tendency that can be described as their custodian privilege (ca. 1245-55 AD) Pisa, S. Martino. the transitory nature of access the divine through material means, we
by writing an unprec- memory, because those
realist. In order to humanise Christ, devotional edented number of things which are only can use images constructed “of things seen, in
texts. They described heard fall into oblivion
attention was focused on his pain and suffering, the hardships under the more easily than those
order to grasp the unseen.”33 The unseen are the
in parallel with a representational shift—from a mamluks and the variety as meditational guidebooks or devotional tracts, things which are seen. mysteries of the Passion, made visible through
of indulgences given Bonaventure, sentences
stoic god who had triumphed death, to a vulner- to pilgrims, promoting these texts encouraged internal pictorial visu- of Peter Lombard Lib. stational devotion and the theology of the cross.
holy land pilgrimage as III dist. IX art.1 q.2
able man who suffered on the cross.20 Historian a sort of early-modern
alisation with tangible descriptions of places, Translated in Garside C.
In that sense, there is no meaningful distinction
Gaston Boissier writes that in early Christianity, tourist brochure. distances, patterns, and materials, allowing JR. Zwingly and the Arts between physical and mental pilgrimage of the
Beaver, Adam G., “From (New Haven 1966), 91.
painters refrained from representing the scenes Jerusalem to Toledo: Christians to read their way to imitation and In Duggan, Lawrence stations, as both forms are predicated on imagi-
Replica, Landscape G., “Was Art Really the
of the Passion, avoiding any depiction of pain or and the Nation in
recollection. With their realist specificity, these ‘Book of the Illiterate'’”
native labour and emotional engagement rooted
weakness that might disrespect Christ.21 On the Renaissance Iberia,” in textual representations became incredibly popu- in Reading Images and in theatricality—in progressive linearity, dra-
Past & Present, Volume Text: Medieval Images
contrary, Francis himself made the outward dis- 218, Issue 1 (2013), 57 lar, reflecting both a religious need and a political and Texts as Forms of matic specificity, emotional intensity, and staged
Communication eds. M.
play of pain an integral part of devotion, through 25
Ragusa I. and Green,
mission.24 In Meditations on the Life of Christ, the Fig 6: The Manger or Crib at Greccio Hageman, M.Mostert
immediacy.34
his own stigmata in 1228 and the “love of the poor R. (trans.), Meditations author instructs, “Turn your eyes away from His Giotto [debatable] 1297 - 1300 AD (Utrecht: Brepols, 2000),
on the Life of Christ: An Upper Basilica of San Francesco, Perugia, Assisi 73
and crucified Christ.” Illustrated Manuscript of divinity for a little while and consider Him purely
32
the Fourteenth Century Freedberg, The Power
This radical shift from icon to realism (Cambridge, 1961), 330
as a man”,25 before describing Christ’s bruised of Images, 164,
was portrayed in Passion-related imagery, now in Derbes, Picturing the and beaten flesh: “look at him well, as he goes The humanist-realist representation of the Pas- 33
POPULAR VARALLO: IL GRAN
Passion in Late Medieval Ibid, 188
focused on scenes of betrayal, flagellation, mock- Italy, 158 along, bowed down by the Cross and grasping sion had a didactic purpose to be a popular vehi-
34
TEATRO MONTANO35
Benzan, Carla,
ing, the bleeding crucifixion, and entombment— 26
Freedberg, David, The
aloud; feel as much compassion as you can… with cle for the imitation of Christ by the laity in their “Alone at the Summit:
The stations appeared in Europe in the late
all the events that were later commemorated in Power of Images: Studies your whole mind imagine yourself present.”26 own surroundings. This style was widely dissem- Solitude and the Ascetic Middle Ages. One of the earliest examples was
in the History and Theory Imagination at the
Jerusalem’s urban space by the same monastic of Response (Chicago Indeed, being present in the scene was a inated after the death of St Francis in 1228, when Sacro Monte of Varallo” installed in Nuremberg in 1490. Leading from
and London: University in In Solitudo: Spaces,
order. In time, non-scriptural events (such as the of Chicago Press, 1989),
key component of Franciscan piety. Before text the order embarked on a large-scale project to Places, and Times of
the church to St Johannes Cemetery, six bas-re-
stripping of the garments or the encounter with 170 note 26 became their main channel to induce imagina- erect permanent buildings decorated with imag- Solitude in Late Medieval liefs depicting scenes from Christ’s Passion were
and Early Modern
Veronica) were added to stretch out the narrative 27
Translated from tive labour for mental imitation, the Franciscans es of the humanised Christ.30 In highly dramatic Cultures. Intersections: installed perpendicular to the road, escorting the
Latin: Volo denim Interdisciplinary Studies
leading up to the execution. These episodic rep- Illius pueri memoriam
used realist staging through sacre rappresentazioni, and brutally detailed sequenced compositions, in Early Modern Culture
town’s mourners en route to bury their loved
resentations attempted to induce contemplation agere qui in Bethlehem in an attempt to bring the ideal into the living. these frame-by-frame representations of the eds. Enenkel, Karl A.E. ones, thus reminding them of Christ’s ultimate
natus est et infantilise and Göttler, Christine
on Christ’s humanity in order to bridge personal necessitatum eius While church plays had existed since the twelfth Passion fragmented an event whose violence and (Leiden and Boston: Brill, sacrifice and their role within it.36 In early six-
incommoda quomodo 2018), 344
history with the chronicles of human salva- in praesepio reclinatus
century, it was St Francis that introduced the cruelty would otherwise be too harsh to grasp. teenth-century Seville, nobleman Fadrique
35
tion.22 This ideological framework was crucial et quomodo adstante concept of staging a scriptural event amidst daily These artworks not only addressed the desire for “Il Gran Teatro Enriquez de Ribera set up twelve stations across
bove atque asino supra Montano” is a 1965 by
for the Franciscans, as they shaped the collective foenum positus existitit, life. According to his biographer, during the a realist depiction of the Passion, but also created Giovanni Testori. A writ- the city, following the distances he had measured
utcumque corporeis er, journalist, painter and
memory of the Christian past according to their oculis pervidere
Christmas of 1223, St Francis decided to construct an episodic progression not dissimilar from the playwright, Testori was
with his own footsteps in Jerusalem.37 However
contemporary pedagogical needs. The method of 28
the praesepie (crib or manger) of Christ’s birth stational devotion in Jerusalem itself, making use born in Milan and studied the most complex, radical, and theatrical exam-
Rosenthal, Erwin, the religious art of the
recollection was formulated by the Franciscan “The Crib of Greccio and with real animals and hay.27 As Thomas of Celano of the theatricality introduced by Francis. These region in the fifteenth ple was erected above the town of Varallo in 1491
Franciscan Realism” in through eighteenth
philosopher Bonaventure (1221–1274), who wrote The Art Bulletin, Vol. 36,
writes, men and women bearing candles and artworks not only spurred the pious beholder to centuries. His study of
by the Franciscan friar Bernardino Caimi. Born to
that visualisation of memories could expand the No. 1 ( 1954), 57 torches came to witness the scene, where an ox, emotional reaction, but encouraged an identi- the Sacred Mountain of a noble Milanese family, Caimi joined the order in
Varallo, which inspired
pious mind: “grant to me who did not merit to an ass, and St Francis himself entered a cave-like fication with the moral code of Christ: a life of his own work on stage, the second half of the fifteenth century and spent
has not been translated
be present at these events in the body, that I may stage, forming Christianity’s first nativity scene. submission, patience, innocence, and obedience. into English and is
several years in the Holy Land, where he was ap-
ponder them faithfully in my mind and experi- While it is unclear if a real baby or a doll was The agency of the visual was promoted by therefore not included as pointed as the Custos (superior custodian) of the
a reference in this thesis.
ence towards you.”23 placed in the crib, Bonaventure confirms that the the greatest religious thinkers of the thirteenth Holy Sepulchre.38 In Jerusalem, he witnessed the
36
Corine Schleif: Adam
To conjure these mental images, the event in Greccio had received papal approval, and century: Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) repeated that Kraft’s Seven Falls of
growing difficulties faced by Christian pilgrims:
Franciscans used text as a parallel mode of repre- that Francis even took the boy in his arms in front images shall be used as text for those who cannot Christ, online video: beyond the numerous restrictions and dangers
vimeo.com/267585262
sentation that could produce inner images. Known of the emotional audience.28 read; St. Bonaventure (d. 1274) confirmed this by posed to travellers by the Islamic rulers, what was
37
Beaver, From Jerusalem
to Toledo: Replica,

56 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER THREE—

Landscape and the Nation
in Renaissance Iberia, 57 Station to Station 57

Fig 7: Sacro Monte di Varallo, ca. 1500
Drawing by the author ‬after‭Galeazzo Alessi
looming at the end of the fifteenth century was 38
Wittkower, Rudolf, and Bethlehem, commemorating in Varallo only
“‘Sacri Monti’ in the
the growing power of Eastern Orthodox Christi- Italian Alps” in Idea and
the sites under the Order’s custody in Jerusalem.
anity—fostered by the fall of Constantinople to Image: Studies in the Accordingly, movement was directed between
Italian Renaissance”
the Ottoman Turks in 1453—that was increasing- (London: Thames and the locations by the site’s analogous geography
Hudson, 1978), 175
ly pushing the Franciscans out of their shrines rather than scriptural chronology, causing a con-
39
and putting into question their papally-awarded Peri, Oded, fusion amongst pilgrims who were accustomed
Christianity under
Costodia Terra Sanctae.39 Islam in Jerusalem: The to encounter such episodes in a linear fashion.42
Question of the Holy Sites
When Caimi returned to Italy, he embarked in Early Ottoman Times
In an attempt to resolve this spatial complexity
on a project to provide a local alternative to (Leiden, 2001); Frazee, and perhaps to bring the site even closer to the
Charles A., Catholics
Jerusalem pilgrimage. Obtaining financial aid and Sultans: The Church Custodia Terra Sanctae, Franciscan guides were
and the Ottoman Empire,
and papal permission, Caimi began the construc- 1453-1923 (Cambridge,
made available to lead visitors between the cha-
tion of a spiritual complex atop an uninhabited 2006), 62-4, 145 pels.43 Unlike Jerusalem’s hurried tours, in Varallo
hillside by the Sesia river, whose topography 40
Wittkower, Rudolf, the guides allowed and even encouraged contem-
“‘Sacri Monti’ in the
resembled that of Jerusalem—at least in his eyes.40 Italian Alps” in Idea and
plation of each event of the Passion in its corre-
Within this imaginary landscape, he erected Image: Studies in the sponding location, resulting in a combination of
Italian Renaissance”
three chapels and renamed some elements of the (London: Thames and physical and mental imagination that was never
Hudson, 1978), 176
terrain: the Holy Sepulchre on the hill of “Mount possible through meditation guidebooks, and
41
Calvary,” Nazareth by “Mount Tabor,” and Hood, William, “The certainly not in Jerusalem itself.
Sacro Monte of Varallo:
Bethlehem below “Mount Zion.” Caimi declared Renaissance Art and In 1507, the ambassador to the king of
Popular Religion” in
that the spatial configuration of the chapels, the Monasticism and the Arts
France, Gerolamo Morone, visited the Sacro
distance between them, and their relation to eds. Timothy Verdon and Monte at Varallo. He recorded his moving visit in
John Dally (Syracuse:
Varallo’s topographical features to be identical to Syracuse University an emotional letter to his friend, the poet Lancino
Press, 1984), 301
Jerusalem, creating an analogical equivalent to Curzio: “Because of the difficulties and dangers
42
Jerusalem by replicating its physical conditions Gill, Rebecca, endured by the pilgrims who visit Mount Calvary
“Galeazzo Alessi and the
and bringing the pilgrim experience closer to redevelopment of the in Jerusalem, the Franciscans have built in Varallo
Sacro Monte di Varallo
home. in Tridentine Italy,” in
a copy… The events of the Gospels are represented
The first chapel was completed in 1491. Architectural History, in many chapels into which I was introduced by
Vol. 59 (2016), 100
Dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre, it was built as a pious friar who has seen the place where the real
43
Ibid
a series of chambers through which the pilgrims body of Christ is buried.” Morone emphasised
passed, configuring their bodies by kneeling, the leadership of a local friar in Varallo, who had
bending, and crawling in response to the shifting seen the real sites and could confirm that the “dis-
architectural proportions of space.41 Described tances between these chapels and the structures
as a replica of the church in Jerusalem, it was in which the events are reproduced correspond
designed as a vessel for physical imitation, thus exactly to the originals.” Precision and specificity
generating an affective and intimate relationship were thus crucial to the erection of what he called
between the Jerusalem pilgrim and Christ. Caimi’s a copy that was not only identical, but possibly
Jerusalem Chapel was joined by those of Nazareth even superior to the real one. He concludes:
58 TOWARDS JERUSALEM
Fig 8: Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre (1491) by Gaudenzio Ferrari, with a photo showcasing the
original tomb in Jerusalem. Photo by the author, 2018
44
Moronoe, Gerolamo terra-cotta figures, perspectival illusionism, nat-
(secretary to the Duke
I never saw anything more pious or devout; I have never of Milan) Lettere ed ora- ural light, and the site’s topographic conditions,
seen anything that could pierce the heart more, which ziono Latine, September Ferrari created mini-theatres that made Christ’s
29, 1507, 148-49, in
could compel one to neglect everything else and follow Gill, Galeazzo Alessi Passion an immediate reality. By 1514, close to
and the redevelopment
Christ alone. [...] Let cease henceforth those so-called of the Sacro Monte di thirty chapels were built in this manner, trans-
Roman stations; let end even the Jerusalem pilgrimage [....] Varallo, 100; a similar forming the religious complex from a toponymic
translation can be read
the ingenious site surpasses all antiquity.44 in Wharton, Selling constellation of markers to an elaborate facsimile
Jerusalem, 98
of the life of Christ.49
45
Indeed, Caimi’s isolated complex was relieved Nova, Alessandro In order to address the site’s audience,
“‘Popular’ art in
from the dangers posed by a politically and Renaissance Italy: Ferrari’s polychrome figures were dressed in
early response to the
economically charged urban entity. As a local Je- Holy Mountain at clothes made from real fabric, their heads covered
rusalem, it could be both Herodian (i.e. first cen- Varallo” in Reframing with wigs, beards made from horsehair, and their
the Renaissance: Visual
tury AD) and Mamluk, yet typologically entirely culture in Europe and eyes made of glass pebbles. Other artefacts and
Latin America 1450-1650
vernacular. It fulfilled Caimi’s desire to create a ( New Haven und London: accessories, such as chairs, ropes, buckets, and
local stage for devotion in a place that was at once Yale University Press, beds, were incorporated with the painted and
1995), 116
remote and accessible. sculpted.50 Finally, sand, soil, and earth covered
46
Wittkower, “‘Sacri
However, the site relied on the capability of Monti’ in the Italian the chapel’s floor, merging the site’s landscape
the devout to generate a mental image; in that Alps” in Idea and Image: with scenic murals, and the Holy Land with
Studies in the Italian
sense, it was not much different from Jerusalem Renaissance” (London: Varallo. The use of vernacular imagery—regional
Thames and Hudson,
itself, requiring much imaginative labour from 1978), 179 clothes, landscapes, and even facial features—
the believer. Considering the site’s audience—the 47 mediated the distant and foreign through the
Ibid
semi-literate lay people and the untutored clergy familiar and homely.51 The use of utilitarian
48
Ibid
of vernacular origins—Caimi’s analogical Holy objects in religious art merged the sacred with
49
Land was not enough. Hence, to reach a popular Hood, The Sacro the everyday, giving a realist form to the unseen,
Monte of Varallo:
audience, the order’s verbal sermons had to be Renaissance Art and thus aligning Varallo with the Franciscan mission
Popular Religion, 291
translated into tangible representations using of giving Christ’s humanity a palpable immedia-
50
hyper-realist art.45 This resulted in a project that Leatherbarrow, David, cy.52 Rooted in medieval drama, yet enhanced by
“The Image and Its
would become what Rudolf Wittkower called Setting: A Study of the Renaissance techniques, these illusionary details
Sacro Monte at Varallo”
“one of the most extraordinary enterprises in the in Anthropology and transformed each chapel into a comprehensible
history of Catholic devotion and religious art.”46 Aesthetics, (Chicago: The episode from the life of Christ, to be read as a
University of Chicago
The site’s artistic program owes its form to Press, 1987). scene in the drama of Calvary, enacted as a station
the Valsesian artist Gaudenzio Ferrari. Born in 51
Nova, “Popular” art in in the theatrical ritual.
1475, he arrived in Varallo in 1513 as an accom- Renaissance Italy, 116 Over the next three decades, the site grew
plished artisan, a painter, philosopher and math- 52
Dolev, Nevet, The exponentially, both in scale and detail, into what
Observant Believer as
ematician.47 Ferrari’s project in Varallo sought to Participant Observer, 176 Witkower described as “an enterprise rarely
expand Caimi’s miniature Holy Land into a stag- 53 matched in its successful appeal to popular imagi-
Wittkower, ‘Sacri
ing of Christ’s life and death by transforming each Monti’ in the Italian nation.”53 It was popular, for its intention was to
Alps, 175
of the existing chapels (plus some twenty more) deliver a clear, intense, and emotional message;
into a biblical tableau vivant using architecture, popular for its childlike simplicity and immedi-
sculpture, relief, and paintings.48 With life-size acy; popular for staging spirituality with extreme
CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 59

Fig 9: The Procession of the Magi, the Bethlehem Complex (1515) by Gaudenzio Ferrari
verisimilitude; and popular because it stood out-
side of “high art” and its subtle, classicist, and
elitist trappings.54
Ferrari’s unidealised art was not invented
in Varallo; it encapsulated a religious sentiment
that stemmed from twelfth- and thirteenth-cen-
tury monastic spirituality, conceived in St
Francis’s nativity in Greccio. In fact, affective life-
size representations had been readily used in the
sculptural works of Italian artists such as Guido
Mazzoni and Niccolò dell’Arca, who created com-
positions of life-sized polychrome figures before
Ferrari brought them to Varallo. Born in Modena
around 1450, Guido Mazzoni spent fifty years
working as an artist, goldsmith, and sculptor,
creating ultra-realistic votive tableaux for vari-
ous clients. Featuring extreme facial expressions
and dramatic stagings, his life-size terra-cotta
and wax figures were created using life casts for
hands and faces (often those of his patrons and
commissioners), and included glass eyes and real
clothing, armour, and weapons. His works were
considered ‘depraved’55 as the immediacy of his
figures conjured up violent emotional excite-
ment, much like church dramas in which spec-
tators were expected to react and partake in a
display of intense emotions as proof of penance.56
Mazzoni’s contemporary, Niccolò dell’Arca,
used similar techniques but took the attributes of
60
Photo by the author, 2019
54
Dolev, The Observant theatricality even further to intensify the visual
Believer as Participant
Observer, 175 excitement and invade the beholder’s senses.57
55 His Bewailing Group from 1463, for example, is a
Verdon, Timothy, The
Art of Guido Mazzoni, devastating scene of pain and emotional agony
(London: Garland
Publishing, 1978), 3 portrayed by six figures that surround Christ’s
56 still, dead body. In this carefully composed tab-
Ibid, 16
leau, each archetypal actor performs its precise
57 Freedberg, The Power
of Images, 199 role, inducing a whole range of emotions: from
58 scornful hatred and wrath, to sadism and arro-
Verdon, The Art of
Guido Mazzoni, 41 gance; from generous forgiveness to heartfelt
59
Nova, “Popular” art in sorrow, loving sympathy, and all-consuming
Renaissance Italy, 123 empathy. Placed in churches and patrons’ graves,
60
Wharton, Selling these groups merged scriptural characters with
vernacular figures, and fused Christian history
with personal sorrows.58
Despite the artistic similarities, the work
of Mazzoni and dell’Arca differ from Ferrari’s in
Varallo. First, their compositions did not include
illusionist backdrops or elaborate spatial staging.
Secondly, their scriptural scenes were not part of
a narrative-cycle that dictated the progression of
a ‘plot’. While these aspects were indeed theatri-
cal, perhaps the most radical novelty in Varallo’s
staging was something entirely new—the pos-
sibility of absolute participation in the sacred
scenes. In Varallo, pilgrims were encouraged to
enter the chapels, interact with the settings, and
even touch the holy figures for additional indul-
gences promised by the guiding Franciscans.59
TOWARDS JERUSALEM
Jerusalem, 104
61
Terry-Fritsch,
Indeed, since the stigmatisation of St Francis Allie, “Performing the Christ with a sponge soaked in vinegar; and St
renaissance body and
himself, readers and beholders were encouraged mind: somaesthetic
John gazes at the crosses. In addition to these
to become not just spectators but actual actors style and devotional canonical figures, Ferrari composed sub-narra-
practice at the Sacro
through identification. Empathy was crucial: the Monte di Varallo” in tives with criminals, witnesses, mothers carrying
Open Arts Journal issue.
power of the observer to project herself into the 4 (2015), 122
children, wild horses, and dancing angels.63 This
object of contemplation in order to fully under- 62
constellation of Franciscan-themed, para-scrip-
Ibid, 124
stand it.60 tural occurrences echoes the fragmentation
63
Göttler, Christine
In the chapel of the nativity, for example, a “The Temptation of
of the Passion as it was expanded in the mind,
pilgrim could take part in the events that hap- the Senses at the Sacro through meditation guidebooks, and physically,
Monte di Varallo,”
pened in Bethlehem. Located down the hill from in Religion and the at new locations and markers in Jerusalem’s city
Senses in Early Modern
Varallo’s Calvary, the complex of nativity chapels Europe, ed. Wietse de
space in the centuries to come.
was completed in 1528 by Gaudenzio Ferrari. Upon Boer and Christine
Göttler, Intersections:
entry, the pilgrim encounters the Procession of Interdisciplinary Studies
in Early Modern Culture
the Magi to Christ’s birth: a densely populated (Boston: Brill, 2013), 411
space filled with life-sized sculptures, surrounded 64
Ibid, 406-7
by floor-to-ceiling scenographic murals, scrip-
65
Terry-Fritsch,
tural characters, and their accompanying crowd. Performing the
The first magus holds a golden box in his hand,
dressed in a gold tunic with blue boots; his ter-
ra-cotta face, framed by long horsehair, is painted
black to represent his African origin, following
literally the tradition of the Magi being from the
continents of the world. Behind him another
‘black’ figure looks upward towards a sculpted
horse emerging from the wall in relief, adding
a sense of movement frozen in time. The second
magus holds a gift for Christ the child, wearing
a blue tonic and a red cape. He looks towards the
‘sky’, where a carefully placed skylight sheds a ray
down onto the chapel, presumably representing
the star that directs their way, in this case into
the next room, where Mary and Joseph cradle
their newborn.61
At night, guided only by the Franciscans
and candles, Varallo’s pilgrims would join the
procession. Passing between the characters
and paintings, they would pass through a small
door from the chapel into the Nativity Grotto.
Their performative involvement activated the
scene; standing between the two spaces at the
doorway, they were witnesses to the moment of
Christ’s birth, caught between the Magi, Mary,
and Joseph.62 Ferrari’s greatest creation was the
chapel of Calvary, completed in 1520 on the site
of the original chapel built by Caimi. Located at
the top of the complex, it is a single monumental
room, built as a continuous surface from walls to
ceiling, painted with an immersive scenography
of panoramic murals. In the centre, three wooden
crosses (today the only wooden sculptures in the
site) emerge from an artificial elevated bedrock,
surrounding the motionless bleeding Christ who
bows his head; around him, ninety figures (some
sculpted, some painted) contrast his static gesture
with a hyperactive display of dynamic movement
and intense emotions of excitement, devastation,
and pain. His mother collapses into the arms of
her companions, her arms outstretched with
despair; Roman soldiers play a game over Christ’s
Fig 10: Christ on the Cross, Calvary Chapel (detail above)
garments; a grotesque tormentor reaches out to Gaudenzio Ferrari (1510, 1519-1520)
CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 61

Fig 11: Details (from left): The Guitrous tormenting Jew, the Roman Soldiers,
and Mary swoons to her companions. Calvary Chapel, Gaudenzio Ferrari (1510, 1519-1520)
As in the nativity chapel, pilgrims walked into
the chapel of Calvary and partook in the scene. A
door at one end brought the visitor in front of and
below Christ, who was completely surrounded by
carved and painted actors. Upon entry, a visitor to
the chapel would see the figures of two pilgrims
that arrived from Rome and Santiago (according
to the badges on their clothing), who removed
their hats in awe of the scene. Between fellow
observers and actors, these painted pilgrims
mediate between the contemporary visitor and
the historical scene.64 This was made even more
powerful at night, when the figures were lit only
by flickering candles and concealed oil lamps.
It is easy to imagine how night-time visitors to
the chapel could believe the illusion of life-like
movement. The pilgrim, already filled with a
heightened sensory awareness, had little need
to contribute more imaginative labour.65 Varallo
provided the opportunity to encounter the divine
in a way that ingrained memories so vividly in
the mind that they could later be effortlessly rec-
ollected; thus, it became a successful pilgrimage
site for popular audiences across the region and
beyond.
62
Renaissance Body and
Mind, 125
THEATRICALITY,
66
DISCIPLINED
Baldwin, Graham
Stephen Ives, “Ascetic The participatory theatricality in the chapels of
Images: Subjectivity
the Nativity and Calvary demonstrate an absolute
and Abstraction in
Sacred Imagery after reliance on the spectator in order to complete the
the Reformation” in
Rituals and Walls: The artwork..66 This condition was criticised, half a
Architecture of Sacred millennium later, by Michael Fried in his seminal
Space eds. Pier Vittorio
Aureli and Maria essay “Art and Objecthood” (1967). Fried rejected
Sheherazade Giudici
(London: Architectural the tenets of minimalist art, where the condition
Association, 2016)
of theatricality mandates participation from the
67
_Fried, Michael, Art beholder. He criticised the condition in which the
and Objecthood: Essays
and Reviews (Chicago space that surrounds an artwork becomes integral
and London: University to the piece itself—when objects, light, and bod-
of Chicago Press, 1998),
4 ies become equal components—meaning that an
artwork can only be complete when a spectator is
present. Instead, he claimed that the distinction
between art and life should be reinstated, and an
artwork should be complete in itself. For him, a
condition of “stage presence,” where there was no
distinction between art and life, was aggressive
and obtrusive, requiring “special complicity that
the work extorts from the beholder”; in fact, he
claims that “art degenerates as it approaches the
condition of theatre.”67
Michael Fried’s discussion of theatricality
had no intentional connection to Varallo’s cha-
pels, yet his critique of minimalist art sheds light
on Ferrari’s project. Pilgrims, as spectator-actors,
animated each scene through their participation.
Whether as a member of the Magi procession or
a witness in Christ’s crucifixion, each pilgrim
played an active role in a drama, acting out emo-
tions of puzzlement, grief, and anger alongside
members of Christ’s family and his followers,
thus completing the theological function of the
chapels. Hence, it was the bodies of spectators,
the plastic arts, the natural landscape, and the
TOWARDS JERUSALEM
68
Baldwin, Ascetic
Images,
site’s ephemeral conditions, such as weather and implying that supernatural powers were not
69
Dolev, The Observant
light, that created the possibility of complete Believer as Participant
contingent on the devout’s moral state or belief,
immersion. Fried criticised exactly this co-de- Observer, 190 but on magical characteristics inherent to holy
pendency between ritual and setting, which at 70
Hood, The Sacro persons, words, objects, or places themselves.74
Monte of Varallo, note 26
Varallo offered pilgrims complete engagement Holy water, for example, would ‘automatically’
71
and uninterrupted meditation. The term Counter- drive away evil spirits, remedy illnesses, and bless
Reformation
Varallo’s artistic verisimilitude joins a devo- (Gegenreformation) was people, houses and food;75 prayers would work if
coined by a German
tional lineage that considered external vision to Protestant historian
repeated enough times, even if the person recit-
be simply a key to internal vision; the Augustian in the late eighteenth ing them did not understand the text itself, for
century. — Laven,
seeing in order to see the unseen. However, Ferrari’s Encountering the there was virtue in mere repetition.76 This means
Counter-Reformation,
creation was so intensely sensory that it threat- 707
that there was not much distinction between a
ened to become not a means but an end in itself, 72
spell or a prayer, or between magic and religion.
Walsham, Alexandra,
a representation for its own performative sake. “The Reformation and The Church’s claim to magical powers was
'The Disenchantment of
Aesthetic pleasure would divert the pilgrim the World' Reassessed”
one of the tropes of medieval theology that the
from the representation’s function as a stepping in The Historical Reformers sought to eradicate. They argued that
JournalVol. 51, No. 2
stone to spiritual ascension; it would lead to the (2008), 505 the church could not assume divine powers: it
veneration of the representation rather than what 73
Thomas, Keith,
must discard the fraudulent ideas of miracles
it represented.68 By the middle of the sixteenth Religion and the Decline and sacred objects (since the celestial cannot
of Magic: Studies
century, there was a clear appreciation of the risk in Popular Beliefs be accessed through the terrestrial world) and
in Sixteenth- and
in Varallo’s theatricality and the unquestioned Seventeenth-Century
reframe its dramatic rituals as memorials of past
Catholic obedience it would foster.69 As Ferrari England (London: miracles, not as actual re-enactments.77 In fact, mere
Penguin Books, 1973), 51
was completing his masterpieces in Varallo—the participation in a ritualistic way of living was no
74
Ibid, 53
chapels of Bethlehem and Calvary in 1521—the longer a means to salvation: instead, one should
first waves of iconoclasm were arriving from the 75
Thomas, Religion and internalise Christian dogma through profound
north: the fear of seductive, intense, and life-
the Decline of Magic, 32
76
knowledge.78 Indeed, medieval peasants were
Ibid, 47
like religious art penetrated the isolated moun- unlikely to know much of the contents of the Holy
77
tain-top. Now feared for its power to transform Ibid, 88–89 Bible or Christ’s moral code; they followed their
pious reverence into an outburst of uncontrolled 78
Walsham, The local priest in birth, marriage, and death, thus
Reformation and 'The
violence, Ferrari’s work came to a standstill, and Disenchantment of the
participating in rituals they associated with the
in 1528, Ferrari and his workshop were relocated World' Reassessed, 498 promise of divine aid. Working against this ten-
from Varallo, which fell into temporary oblivi- 79
Thomas, Religion and dency, the Protestants elevated one’s faith over
the Decline of Magic, 88-9
on.70 It was only under the spirit of the Counter- actions, emphasising belief rather than practice.
80
Reformation that Varallo would be adapted into Janelle, Pierre, The In this process, the Protestant reformers down-
Catholic Reformation,
the theological needs of the Catholic church and (Milwaukee: The Bruce played the role of church officials in dispensing
Publishing Company,
be initiated again as a pilgrimage site. 1949), 198
salvation, thus carving a direct path between the
Before exploring Varallo’s renovation, individual and God.79
81
Theological errors
it might be beneficial to reiterate what the include depicting the In this religious climate, the use of images
crucified Jesus with
Counter-Reformation put at stake in the realm ropes rather than nails,
became a crucial issue. While the extreme
of visual representation and the use of images. dressing St Francis in Reformers hoped to suppress any kind of religious
elegant clothes, painting
Following Martin Luther’s attack on Catholicism the three Marys as representation, the Counter-Reformation sought
young women, and so
in the early sixteenth century, the Catholic on. — Janelle, Pierre, The
to reclaim the agency of visual art in light of the
church worked to reinvent itself by responding to Catholic Reformation Protestant critique. Images were to be used only
(Milwaukee: The Bruce
the Protestant accusations of its exploitation and Publishing Company, in a legitimate way that served a didactic religious
1949), 198
abuse of religious power.71 Beyond the character purpose, rather than allowing superstitions to
of the church itself, the Reformers condoned its rise from the worship of idols.80 The rich variety
blasphemous practices, idolatrous rituals, and of characters, plots, and narratives in late-medi-
forms of affective piety, and attempted to rede- eval religious art would have to be redacted and
fine the agency of the church in mediating God replaced with a pious simplicity. Direct, austere,
and man by promoting rationality and clarity. In and emotionally compelling images, represent-
other words, the Reformers sought to eliminate ing scenes from the Old and New Testaments
and illuminate what they perceived as ‘dark’, (preferably those of a tragic character), would be
superstitious, and ignorant: magic.72 explicitly portrayed with theological precision,
Magic, here, refers to the range of powers leaving little room for spontaneous imagina-
the church claimed to possess on the eve of the tion.81 This restraint reflected both the church’s
Reformation. These included performing mirac- remorse over its recent misbehaviour, but also
ulous solutions for earthly problems, such as cur- the Catholic appropriation (and internalisation)
ing the ill, increasing fertility (of land, livestock, of the Protestant assertion that discipline should
or women), or healing sterility.73 Holy water, the come from within oneself.
recitation of prayers, the sign of the cross, or the Since visual representations were to serve
worship of saints were all ways to conjure magic, a didactic purpose (following St Gregory’s claim
CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 63
 82
Ibid
83
“On the invocation,
Venerating, and Relics
of Saints, and on Sacred
Image” in Roman
Catholic Church, The
Council of Trent, 234-236
84
Ibid, [my italics]
85
Orsenigo, Cesare,
Life of Charles Borromeo
(1945), 302-320
86
One of his biographers
has written that "he
considered pilgrimage a
valuable element in that
grand design of count-
er-reform which was the
real programme of all
his pastoral activity."—
Orsenigo, Life of Charles
Borromeo, 302–330
87
Benzan, Alone at the
Summit: Solitude and
the Ascetic Imagination
at the Sacro Monte of
Varallo, 345
Fig 12: Caravaggio, Deposition (or Entombment),
c. 1600-04, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City
that Gospel illuminations are “the book of the
unlearned”), a set of instructions had to be
devised for both image-makers and the clergy.
Indeed, artists were to illustrate the merits of
Christian dogma in a manner that would prevent
the possibility of confusion and distraction. This
set of guidelines was legislated in the Council of
the Catholic Church in Trent between 1545 and
1563, held in response to the Protestant Reform.
Alongside the clarification of the role of the
church’s liturgy, the celebration of mass, and its
attitudes towards sin, justification, and salvation,
the Council also issued a decree about the use
of images. Considering the uncontrolled expan-
sion of representational themes and subjects,
the decree sought to discipline the multiplicity
of meaning created by those images. In other
words, the Council sought to order not only how
themes were to be represented, but also what was
to be included in religious art. The decree asked
“all bishops, and others who sustain the office
and charge of teaching” to instruct on the use of
images, now limited to the representation of
Christian archetypes—Christ, the Virgin Mother,
and the Saints—while anything else was consid-
ered “false doctrine” and banned as a “dangerous
error to the uneducated.” This cautious attitude
towards images—their careful placement, correct
content, and spatial configuration—reveals the
Catholic adaptation of the Protestant critique; if
used improperly, images could cause chaos and
disorderly behaviour; if used correctly, however,
64
images would instruct the laity to “order their
own lives and manners in imitation of the
saints.”82
In their quest to delink the signified from
the signifier, the church made it clear that these
images were mere representations, not sacred
themselves. These were ‘prototypes’ of the divine,
visual aids to imagine that which we cannot
see, giving the devout observer a “great profit [...]
because the miracles which God had performed
by means of the saints […] are set before the eyes
of the faithful.”83 In order to distribute such
images, the Council gave orders to the clergy that
“great care and diligence be used herein by bish-
ops, as that there be nothing seen that is disorderly,
that is unbecomingly or confusedly arranged.”84 It is
easy to imagine how Ferrari’s Varallo would be
targeted for such reforms. Its numerous figures,
emotional exaggeration, and plethora of subplots
and unknown background characters constituted
only the content of the chapels, which were them-
selves confusingly arranged and attended in a
disorderly fashion. This not only caused confusion
amongst pilgrims, but also distracted their minds
from the solitary contemplation and emotional
clarity they needed for spiritual ascension, com-
passion, and recollection. However, in the second
half of the sixteenth century, Varallo would retake
the centre-stage with a project of reconstruction
that led to the site’s revival, following an elabo-
rate program to adjust, restrain, and discipline its
theatricality by reinstating theological precision.
REFORMING VARALLO:
SHIELDS AND FIXED ITINERARIES
Vulnerable to a Protestant invasion from the
north and largely affiliated with Catholic Mi-
lan, Varallo stood at the frontier of the Count-
er-Reformation. It attracted the attention of a
pivotal figure in the Counter-Reformation, the
former cardinal and Archbishop of Milan, Carlo
Borromeo. Borromeo was immensely popular
and hugely influential in the proceedings of the
Council of Trent and the implementation of the
new reforms. A passionate believer in the power
of pilgrimage, Borromeo was said by his biogra-
pher to have viewed the phenomenon of spiritual
travel as “a valuable element in the grand design
of Counter-Reform.”85 However, he strongly op-
posed any form of theatricality in the believer’s
life, and therefore sought to discipline any rituals
with a substantial potential for error, confusion,
and temptation.86 Speaking in 1576 at the Provin-
cial Council on Religious Pilgrimage, he stressed
the importance of restricting pilgrim itineraries
and restraining their use of images, in order to
control body and mind.87 Borromeo would go on
to implement these ideas in Varallo: from his first
TOWARDS JERUSALEM
88
Wittkower, ‘Sacri
Monti’ in the Italian
visit to the site in 1578 to his last in 1584, shortly Alps, 179 scene, and felt it should be protected by a shield
before his death, the site was transformed into a 89
Gill, Galeazzo Alessi
that would effectively separate the beholder from
systematic vehicle for pious devotion.88 and the redevelopment the representation.94 The chapels were no longer
of the Sacro Monte di
In the mid-1560s, Giacomo d’Adda, a Varallo in Tridentine open to physical interaction but dedicated to
Italy, 101
wealthy Milanese related to Varallo by marriage, viewing only, composed more as flat paintings
90
became the administrator of the Sacro Monte. Ibid than three-dimensional works. In the Calvary
His appointment followed a period of turmoil: 91
Bell, Margaret chapel, Alessi settled for glass, while in the other
F., “Image as Relic:
in 1554, an argument raged in the town between Bodily Vision and
chapels—both of Franciscan origin and new-
the Franciscans (affiliated with the founder of the Reconstitution ly-built—he proposed a sophisticated viewing
of Viewer/Image
the site) and the local fabbricieri, a civic elite who Relationships at the device: the Vetriate. Installed from floor to ceiling
Sacro Monte di Varallo”
controlled the alms given by pilgrims to the site.89 in California Italian
and across the chapel’s width, the Vetriate sepa-
Some eighty years after they donated the land Studies, 5 (2014), 311 rated the pilgrim from the sacred representation,
to the Franciscan Caimi,90 the fabbricieri wanted 92
Gill, Galeazzo Alessi which meant that visitors could no longer engage
and the redevelopment
to retake control over its content and layout. As of the Sacro Monte di
physically with the figures but only view them
the site’s administrator, d’Adda commissioned Varallo in Tridentine through a screen.95 Within this partition, specific
Italy, 98, note 4
the architect and urban planner Galeazzo Alessi viewing holes were placed, directing the viewer
93
Alessi, Galeazzo, Libro
(1512–1572) to refurbish the neglected pilgrimage dei Misteri: translated
towards particular occurrences in the scene, thus
site.91 Alessi, who trained in Perugia and worked in Gottler, Christine, ensuring clarity. Whether the content was dozens
Last Things: Art and the
extensively in Milan, Genoa, Bologna, and Naples, Religious Imagination of figures or an intimate scene, it was designed to
in the Age of Reform
delivered his project for Varallo as the Libro Dei (Brepols, 2010), 99
be legible from a single point of view. Due to the
Misteri (1565–1569), a 318-page volume of plans, 94
size of the openings and the conditions of nat-
Ibid
sections, elevations, and construction details ural light inside the chapel, the pilgrim needed
95
Bell, Margaret
outlining the extensive reconstruction project F., “Image as Relic:
to stand extremely close to the partition in order
of forty-four chapels.92 In the book, Alessi not Bodily Vision and to see the mystery, placing him or herself at the
the Reconstitution
only changed the scale of the site, but proposed of Viewer/Image optimum viewing location.
Relationships at the
to entirely reconsider the relationship between Sacro Monte di Varallo”
image and beholder, ex novo, with two major revi- in California Italian
Studies (2014), 319
sions: restricting the gaze into the chapels and
96
Ibid, 327
ordering the stational route. Alessi’s project thus
97
dictated how and when the pilgrim should encoun- Ibid, 322
ter the mysteries, namely in a manner that would 98
Stoichita, Victor,
Visionary Experience in
be legible, affective, and penitential. the Golden Age of Spanish
When Alessi studied the existing chapels in Art (London: Reaktion
Books Ltd., 1995), 26
the Sacro Monte of Varallo, he generally approved
99
Göttler, The
of the content of Ferrari’s tableaux. Of the depic- Temptation of the
tion of the suffering Christ, he wrote: “Here one Senses, 434
sees [Christ] on the cross between two thieves,
and it seems to me that the sculpture and painter
have very well explained this mystery, as is evi-
dent in the figure of our Saviour covered with
Fig 12: Sacro Monte di Varallo
wounds and bleeding profusely.”93 Indeed, over
Photo by the author, 2018
the next centuries, the artworks in Varallo’s cha-
pels would be carried out in the manner dictated The design of the Vetriate had several layers of
by Ferrari, despite shifting artistic tendencies in interlocking affectivity. First was the physical
the Italian and Christian world. Works were exe- separation from the life-like tableaux, responding
cuted by different teams in various stages of the to the widespread angst around idolatry.96 The
site’s development: the painter Domenico Alfano screen prevented touch and thus disciplined the
with sculpture Giovanni Tabachetti, the designer pilgrim’s literal engagement with the sacred
Giovanni d’Enrico, and by the 1640s, the painters scene, limiting the sensory experience to the
Morazzone and Antonio d’Enrico. These artists visual realm.97 The screen could also be seen as a
maintained the use of everyday objects, poly- frame; often ornate with decorative motifs, the
chrome figures, and perspectival frescoes within Vetriate demarcated the tableaux as a venerated
each new chapel. relic, casting an aura of sanctity over the un-
The project departed from Ferrari, however, touchable terra-cotta figures within.98 According
in its various compositions that now depended to Christine Göttler, this disciplinary separation
on the pilgrim’s mode of engagement. Indeed, can increase the affective power of an image, as
while Alessi confirms the affective legibility of it becomes both visible and obscured.99 It creates
the chapels (“in truth, no believer could look on a safe distance, eliminating the risk of idolatrous
with a dry eye”), he was not content with the behaviour and moral corruption, preventing a col-
possibility to engage directly with the sacred lapse into uncontrollable performative violence.
CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 65
 100 103
Benzan, Alone at the Göttler, Christine,
Summit, 359 Last Things: Art and the
Religious Imagination
101
Göttler, The in the Age of Reform,
Temptation of the (Turnhout: Brepols,
Senses, 396 2010), 95
102 104
Bell, Image as Relic, Ibid, 100
320
105
From the guidebooks
to the Sacro Monte di
Varallo: Pomi D., “Le
guide cinquecentesche
del Sacro Monte”, in
De Filippis, Gaudenzio
Ferrari, 115–120;
Cometti M., “Le guide
cinquecentesche e
secentesche del Sacro
Monte di Varallo”, in
Vaccaro – Riccardi, Sacri
Monti 131–141; Göttler,
The Temptation of the
Senses, 426
106
Göttler, The
Temptation of the
Senses, 434
107
Wharton, Selling
Jerusalem, 131

Fig 14: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross, Giovanni d’Enrico (1599) Fig 15: Drawing of the Chapel of the Temptation of Christ,
looking through the Vitriate. Photo by the author, 2018 Galeazzo Alessi, Libro Dei Misteri (1565-1569)

Fig 13: The clear separation between the space of the pilgrim and that
of the figure and the “Vetriate” through which viewing takes place. Chapel of the Original
Sin, Galeazzo Alessi, Libro Dei Misteri (1565-1569)
This ‘veiling’ of the tableaux could heighten
the symbolic power of what was partially hid-
den, directing the pilgrim’s attention to the
unseen and ungraspable. In the Chapel of the
Transfiguration of Christ, for example, the climax
of the mystery is deliberately shielded from view.
Built on top of a natural hill in Varallo, this cir-
cular chapel replaced the Caimi-era Chapel of the
Ascension, which made the natural hill analogi-
cal for the Mount of Olives. Alessi’s design, begin-
ning in 1572 and completed only in 1665, included
the addition of a stucco Mount “Tabor,” thus
expanding the geographical and scriptural scope
of the site’s initial commemoration beyond the
events of the Passion and Jerusalem alone. Inside,
a turbulent supernatural sky surrounds a group
of sculpted apostles, who look up towards Christ’s
figure, placed high above the reach of the pil-
grim’s gaze. Like the painted pilgrims in Ferrari’s
Calvary, the flesh-and-blood visitor to Varallo
joins the represented figures by looking up to the
miracle.100 Shielded by the Vetriate, the pilgrim is
forced to look up above the mountain, beyond the
apostles, in order to witness the sacred drama,
creating a vertical axis of both real and mental
space, fostering a corporeal memory and staging
the penitential labour of the body and mind. In
this way, the screen directed worship away from
the materiality and towards the immateriality of
what was represented.
The Transfiguration Chapel is but one example
of Alessi’s revision of the site’s legibility. With
the grille partitions, Alessi created a design to
discipline the gaze in the site’s older and future
chapels, presenting each tableau as a represen-
tation—not an embodiment—of the divine. To
assure complete clarity, Alessi inserted a device
within a device, a viewing aperture in the Vetriate.
Its particular width and placement created a
condition for solitary devotion, withdrawing the
pilgrim from risky engagement with a group of
emotional fellow-travellers. Isolation, after Trent,
was crucial; pilgrimage was to return to its ere-
mitic origins, distanced from society in self-im-
posed exile, undertaking spiritual exercises in
private through meditation and contemplation.101
The pilgrim would also be protected from what
Trent referred to as confusing theological mes-
sages, preventing “dangerous errors to the uned-
ucated” by directing the gaze precisely to particular
elements of the elaborate scene. Through careful
placement, the viewing holes literally framed hand
gestures, extreme facial expressions, and personal
encounters that were familiar to the viewer from
sermons. This not only made the lesson entirely
legible to the viewer, but it portrayed nothing
more nor less than the ‘prototypes’ prescribed in
Trent.102
It is important to remember that while
Varallo’s stational ritual was constructed as a
sequence of lessons and Christian rites to be
followed physically, the route to personal salva-
tion was contingent on an interior journey. After
Trent, remission of sins and justification through
action was crucial, and Alessi’s Vetriate should be
viewed in the context of this religious climate.
Like prayer itself, the confession of sin was spa-
tially ordered in Milan in the 1560s through the
church confessional, a device with two separate
compartments for the kneeling confessor and the
seated Father. Between them, a small window
was fitted with a perforated metal grille, enabling
the exchange of words but not glances, prevent-
ing seduction by eliminating visual and physical
contact.103 Not dissimilar from Alessi’s Vetriate,
the confessional was widely introduced in order
to regulate sensorial interactions; it fixed a spatial
composition as a precondition for pious activity.
An examination of a detail from Alessi’s
Libro shows a pilgrim kneeling before a tableau,
grasping his hands, lifting his gaze, and pray-
ing in stillness. According to scholars, it is not
by chance that Alessi chose to demonstrate this
device in the Chapel of the Temptation of Christ,
alluding to the curiosities posed by images.104
Thus, Alessi’s penitential viewing device not only
tamed but also channelled the viewer’s devotion.
By likening the still tableau to a flesh-and-blood
bishop, Alessi bestowed the terra-cotta figures
with the authority of remission. This was not far
from the truth: in 1587, Pope Sixtus V declared the
Sacro Monte of Varallo a “religious [monument]
of extraordinary antiquity” (religiosa antiquitatis
monumenta insignis), and promised that a visit to
each chapel within this complex would award
the pilgrim with an indulgence of 100 days, an
amount matched only by Jerusalem itself.105
The second major revision proposed by Alessi was
to give a sense of order to the physical movement
of the pilgrim through the site. At a time when the
church was trying to impose order and restriction
on religious spaces by standardising the reception
of images and their behavioural consequences,
Varallo could not afford a lack of clarity.106 While
each chapel represented a scriptural episode and
an affective response, it was essentially a singu-
lar station that was part of a larger constellation
in the devotional process. This process, given the
site’s topographical conditions, had to be staged
as a clear roadmap to salvation.
When Alessi arrived at Varallo, the neglected
Franciscan complex was in disorder, suspended
between its own geography and Jerusalem’s
sacred topography; its spiritual narrative was
only legible with the help of a local guide who
was familiar with both Varallo’s mysteries and
its prototype in the Holy Land.107 But Varallo
was not Jerusalem, nor an urban entity at all: it
was an isolated religious complex unaffected by
the political, social, and economic constraints of
a real city. Alessi, who was employed by the fab-
bricieri rather than the Franciscan Order, could
alter the site’s original layout in accordance with
Trinidad concerns. Like the Vetriate, this new
system had a twofold reasoning: to prescribe a
fixed itinerary for the body (hence, of the mind),
and to stage sufficient clarity to enable a solitary,
unguided ritual.
As described earlier in this chapter, Caimi’s
Varallo was constructed as a series of detached
chapels, whose location supposedly corresponded
to a hallowed site in the Holy Land. Visitors to
Varallo who had never visited Jerusalem, and had

66 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 67

 108
Gill, Galeazzo Alessi
and the redevelopment
of the Sacro Monte di
Varallo, 100 (my italics)
109
Gill, Galeazzo Alessi
and the redevelopment
of the Sacro Monte di
Varallo, 102
110
Ibid, 101
111
Ibid, 101
112
Due to its charged
interior, the chapel
of Original Sin was a
topic of much debate
1 and refurbishing.
2 First commissioned by
A 3 Giovanni Antonio d’Adda
(1559–1603), the son of
4 Alessi’s patron Giacomo
13 d’Adda, who had died in
1580, was led by Carlo
Borromeo’s suspicion
towards visual delight.
While the chapel was
shielded by a Vitriate,
the young d’Adda was
worried that the execut-
ed garden might cause
14 delight (diletto) that
might current visitors'
souls. This was resolved
by adding a half-eaten
apple in the hands of
25 12 Adam and Eve. The third
15 version of the chapel
26 is then a culmination
of various anxieties of
confusion and corrup-
tion: Adam and Eve, the
first humans, stand
24 18 Fig 17: Sacro Monte di Varallo on opposite sides of a Fig 18: Sacro Monte di Varallo
11
28 Photo by the author, 2018 fruitful tree, surrounded Photo by the author, 2018
16 by a flock of colourful
life-size animals, of
both exotic and native
17 only encountered such events in the scriptures, origins: an elephant,
To add narrative legibility, Alessi proposed
5
27 6 must have been confused, wrote Alessi. In the lion, rhinoceros, to subdivide the site into three distinct areas:
B leopard, camel, ostrich,
29 30 31
10 7 prologue of the Libro, he noted: wild boar, deer, hare, first, the uneven terrain and dense green areas of
34 and a cock, alongside
32 domesticated animals
Nazareth and Bethlehem, which constituted the
23 8
33 [B]ecause of rush the first founders placed the chapels such as sheep and goats. prelude to Christ’s days as Saviour. From there, an
22 19
21 20 with little order so that what often happens is that visitors arched path led to the ‘urbanised’ Jerusalem space,
to the mysteries find first that which they should find with its geometrically organised monumental
later, which seems to me to be a huge defect of great buildings, connected by arcades, colonnades, and
C importance.108 stairs, leading to an additional level. The third
43 compound, placed below the hill’s summit, was
E This “huge defect” in the order of the mysteries to include the afterlife.110 To assure clarity and
42
39
would harm the affective progression expected negate even further the pilgrim’s need for a local
40 41 from the site’s visitors. Varallo’s winding paths, guide, Alessi numbered the chapels with a clear
38 haphazard placement of chapels, and overgrown order, and used greenery, terraces, and paved
D
greenery had to be completely rethought. Unlike paths to connect the entrance of each chapel both
36 37 his surgical intervention in the chapels them- visually and physically to the next. Nearby cha-
selves, here Alessi proposed to destroy the exist- pels that were out of order were obstructed from
ing paths and create a clearly marked route across view through the clever placement of hedges,
the site. This path would follow Christ’s life, stairs, terraces, arches, and walkways.
disregarding the impossibility of any proximity The complete sequencing of Varallo’s sta-
between these places and the real Holy Land. For tions served the site’s role as an elaborate lesson
example, he proposed that the Annunciation (in on the importance of sin and justification. Though
Nazareth) and the Nativity (in Bethlehem) should never completed, the pilgrim’s route was to end in
be juxtaposed, thus following a narrative struc- the complex of stations representing the afterlife,
ture as opposed to a geographic one (as the cities with the chapels of Universal Judgment, Limbo,
are distant from each other in reality). While Purgatory, and Hell.111 The mirror image to the
chapels were removed or remodelled, hills were site’s conclusion in hell is its beginning in Heaven,
flattened and trees planted; the original topog- or the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve are
raphy, which remotely recreated the Holy Land caught in their sinful temptation.112 Placed by the
pilgrimage, became a stage for a chronological site’s porta principale in the new Varallo, the chapel
Fig 16: Sacro Monte di Varallo (ca. 1564), drawing by the author route that spatialised a textual journey through framed the entire journey of the pilgrim through
(1)-(43) Stations of the Cross (A) Nazereth (B) Bethlehem (C) Jerusalem (D) Mount Calvary
(E) Sepulchre the Scriptures.109 the site in the shadow of original sin. Kneeling in

68 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 69


front of the Vetriate’s opening, the pilgrim’s gaze
was directed (albeit with a peripheral upheaval
of exotic and domesticated wildlife) towards the
fatal moment of humanity’s lustful appetite, a
reminder of the need for personal redemption.
From there, a path to salvation was activated not
only for the pilgrim but for all mankind. Hence,
a ‘correct’ passage through Varallo’s devotional
stations would award the visitor with not only
the remission of his own sins, but the spiritual
rebirth of humanity: from the flesh to the mind
and back, and from the first Adam to the second,
Jesus Christ.113
The reorganisation of Varallo reflected a
desire to control the body and mind of the pilgrim
by delimiting what their eyes could apprehend, and
simultaneously to isolate them from the greater
mass of spiritual movement, away from the expe-
rience of collective devotion. Notwithstanding
the stylistic continuity of the tableaux, the
transformation from Ferrari to Alessi pointed to
a shift, as described by Annabel Wharton, “from
experiential to dogmatic space.”114 In the process
of systematisation, Varallo became a blueprint
for stational devotion to Christ’s Passion—from
an analogous Franciscan site, meant to emulate
a distant experience, to a hyper-localised device
of devotional piety; from a communal activity
to a solitary one; from an interactive, dramatic,
and theatrical performance of the body to a dis-
ciplined, contained, and stationary meditation of
the mind; from the proliferation of meanings and
113
Gill, Galeazzo Alessi
and the redevelopment
of the Sacro Monte di memories to a clear, unconfusing recollection;
Varallo, 102
from an imitation of a pilgrim’s journey through
114
Wharton, Selling urban complexity to a legible, prescribed, self-
Jerusalem, 131
guided itinerary; from monastic spirituality to
115
Wittkower, ‘Sacri
Catholic theology; from open-ended imagina-
Monti’ in the Italian tion to worship of archetypes; from spontaneous
Alps, 183
uncontrolled emotion to a steady progression of
116
Wittkower, ‘Sacri
Monti’ in the Italian
psychological affection. Thus, Through Alessi’s
Alps, 182 removal of the spectacle from the represented,
meditation was unburdened of all distractions
and distilled the ritual itself from representation.
This stripping of excess distractions initiated a
process of systematisation that concluded with
the stational ritual being reduced to mere units
and the Via Crucis becoming impoverished of its
initial intensity.
STATION AS UNIT, RITUAL
AS ALGORITHM:
THE RISE OF TECHNIC
As shown in the case of Varallo, the angst foment-
ed by the Protestant Reformation impelled the
Catholic Church to revise its position on artistic
representations. The Sacred Mountains offered a
comprehensive prototype—a controlled, affective
environment embedded in a natural landscape—
that could be replicated (with local variations)
in a series of nine Sacri Monti, which acted as
Catholic bastions in the Italian Alps. Addressing
at once the risk from home and away, it kept the Fig 20: Sacro Monte di Varese. Photo by the author, 2019

theatrical excesses of pilgrimage in check, while

neutralising the threat of Protestant infiltration
with Catholic compassion.115
The network of Sacred Mountains built
over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries lay
sprawled, like a line of defence, along the Swiss
border. Each was composed as a sequence of cha-
pels (whose typology varied from site to site) that
featured, behind a viewing partition, episodes
from the lives of the saints, represented with
polychrome terra-cotta figures and scenographic
frescoes. The first Sacro Monte to succeed Varallo
was built in Orta in 1591. It consisted of twenty
chapels laid out by a member of the Franciscan
order on the hilly landscape above Lago di Orta.
Inside the chapels, local artists and craftsmen
created figural scenes from the life of St Francis;
compared to the tableaux at Varallo, their works
were less coherent, at times pairing sculp-
tures with unrelated painted backdrops. Sacro
Monte de Crea, where construction began in
1589, included twenty-three chapels illustrating
the mysteries of the Rosary. Refurbished in the
nineteenth century, its terra-cotta figures were
replaced with plaster sculptures, also set against
scenographic murals.
Fig 19: Sacro Monte di Crea
Photo by the author, 2019
Among the Sacri Monti, the culmination
of the developing stational order can be found
in Varese. This design was initiated by Federico
Borromeo, Carlo Borromeo’s nephew and suc-
cessor as archbishop of Milan, and a similarly
committed supporter of the Sacri Monti. Works
began in 1604 by the local architect Giuseppe
Bernasconi, who designed fourteen monumen-
tal chapels, each a variation on the typology of
a porticoed temple.116 By 1623, the chapels were
complete, featuring scenes from the Mysteries
of the Rosary with hyper-realist figures and
elaborate paintings, created by over a dozen
painters and sculptors, which could be viewed
through grille partitions on the chapel’s exterior.
The placement in the site no longer reflects any
desire for spatial similarity to Jerusalem or topo-
graphic mnemonics; the chapels were placed at
regular intervals along a two-kilometre path that
ascended the mountain to the cathedral at the
top. Attention was given to the path’s width, for
the easy passage of processions; the occasional
chapel is turned ninety-degrees, almost as a side-
note to movement itself. To add rhythm, trium- Fig 21: Sacri Monti: from a toponymic composition to
a linear order. Drawings by the author
phal arches subdivided the ascension further into Varallo (top left) Crea (top right) Orta (bottom left)
Varese (bottom right)
three groups: joy, grief, and glory.

70 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 71

 117
Beaver, Adam
G., “From Jerusalem
to Toledo: Replica,
Landscape and the
seriality, steadily removing content from the pil-
Nation in Renaissance grim’s path.
Iberia,” in Past &
Present, No. 218 (Oxford Despite their different modes of representa-
University Press,
February 2013), 60
tion, Jerusalem’s stations are not, in fact, so dif-
118
ferent from those of the Sacri Monti. Via Dolorosa
Campagna, Federico,
Technic and Magic may be in the same city where Christ passed his
(London: Bloomsbury
Publishing, 2018), 25
final days, but it has no geographic or scriptural
119
correlation to Christ’s actual journey (the street
Ibid, 5–6
he crossed in the first century was not only ten
120
Ibid
metres below the present ground surface, but
located in an entirely different part of the city).
As such, the Via Dolorosa is just another instance
of the many re-enactments of Catholic devotion
Fig 22: Jerusalem, plan. Giovanni Cales’s illustration for Vincenzo
Favi, Viaggio di Gerusalem. to the Stations of the Cross. Placed in an urban
void, it relies solely on its internal mechanism: a
Arguably, the Sacro Monte in Varese pres- steady progression of intensifying emotions, each
ents a crystallisation of the Stations of the Cross: ignited only in relation to that which follows and
the path as primary element and the chapels as precedes.
mere progressive stoppages. In Varese, traces of
Jerusalem or the urban as such were no longer
necessary: the representation grew further from
the represented, as detached from the archetype
as they were removed from the viewer. Any possi-
bility of theological confusion or disordered mem-
ories was removed; urban complexity disappeared
in favour of linearity and legibility—no more nor
less than the canonical fourteen stations.
Not long after the completion of Varese, the
systematic order of the Stations was imported
back to the Holy City: penetrating through the
intricate patchwork of space negotiated between
the city’s diverse ethnic and religious commu- Fig 24: Tableux inside chapel IX (chapel X in reflection)
Sacro Monte di Varese. Photo by the author, 2019
nities, a path was finally carved, numbered, and
ritualised by the Franciscans, who continue to
control the Via Dolorosa today. Unlike the Sacri long series of ‘individuals’, each defined by the
Fig 23: Pilgrims carrying the Cross in the Via Dolorosa,
Monti, these stations are bereft of any dis- Jerusalem, 1950 specific limits of its interaction with what consti-
tinct representation, displaying only a Roman tutes its surroundings at that particular stage.”120
numeral on the wall for those confirming the The canonisation of the stations at the dawn of Considering this interpretation, we can read the
sequence. Despite the complexity of the urban modernity can be ascribed to the rise of a con- rationalisation of the stations as the first signs of
route, Jerusalem’s numerous pilgrims undertake dition known as Technic. Technic is “the spirit of Technic: a new order in which the station is but
the journey in complete devotion. Drawing on absolute instrumentality, according to which a component in an algorithm condition that sees
their ingrained Western tropes of linearity and everything is merely a means to an end”, writes the Via Crucis as a syntactic composition. In this
devotional practice, they are able to complete the Federico Campagna in Technic and Magic (2018).118 new order, the mystery and miracles of the medi-
route in a single trajectory, even without a guide, While a complete outline of Campagna’s argu- eval church—its claims to magical powers—were
ignoring the realities of the contemporary city. In ment is beyond the scope of this thesis, some of eradicated through an empirical understanding
that sense, Giovanni Cales’s 1616 illustration pre- its notions can be applied to highlight what is of religious agency. Christ’s Passion had been
figures the design approach of a 2021 tourist map: at stake in this chapter and, to some extent, in abstracted into units, formalised as stations. In
the city and its inhabitants disappear, leaving the next. According to Campagna, the world, and this process, it lost its autonomy, moving from
only markers, stoppages, or stations, which set the our existential experience within it, derive from a theatrical representation of emotions—trau-
rhythm for an ordered, codified, and regimented a system (or “reality-system”) of Technic, which is ma, arrogance, grief, pain, sympathy, anger,
spiritual movement. Indeed, the steady process contrasted to that of Magic.119 The internal struc- hate, and love—to a reduced chapter in Trent’s
of reciprocal influences from the fourteenth to ture of Technic, which constitutes the anatom- archetypal narratives and fixed affective cues. The
the seventeenth century resulted in the popular- ical components of our world, includes absolute algorithm of this plot is dictated by the Catholic
isation, serialisation, and optimisation of the Via language, measure, and unit. Campagna cites French pedagogy and its synthesis of the Passion as the
Crucis.117 This ritualisation of theatrical devotion philosopher Gilbert Simondon, who distilled his logical outcome of all past events. Confusion and
ultimately created a system that was not con- analysis of technology into an original theory curiosity, once harbingers of imaginative labour,
fined by the realm of theological complexes, but of individuation, when “a thing […] is in a con- were eradicated to prioritize a confessional con-
would expand into the urban, eventually shap- tinuous process of actualisation of its original, templative introspection, replacing theatricality Fig 25: Next page:
ing the architecture of Jerusalem itself through overflowing potential. As the process of individ- with control and discipline, heralding a new era Stations IV and V,
Sacro Monte di Varese,
the same mechanisms of order, restraint, and uation unfolds, we witness the procession of a of intellectual inquiry where Technic triumphs. photo by the author (2018)

72 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 73

74 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER THREE— Station to Station 75
 C HAP T E R F OU R

THE INNOCENTS ABROAD

VALORISING MONUMENTS,
COMMODIFING PILGRIMAGE JERUSALEM IN
Jerusalem has always benefited from its image. 1
Kark, Ruth and TRANSFORMATION
Oren-Nordheim,
Located at a distance from transportation routes Michal, Jerusalem and In the years leading to the 1830s, Jerusalem was
Its Environs: Quarters,
(both over land and sea) and with little natural re- home to a population of about 9,000 residents,
Neighbourhoods, Villages,
sources to extract, the city had to capitalise on its 1800–1948 (Detroit: mainly shopkeepers and craftsmen who lived
Wayne State University
symbolic value for economic survival. However, Press‬, 2001), 26–27 within a walled enclosed city.1 At the time, Je-
this condition arrived at a point of excess in the 2 rusalem was a spiritual home to the three Abra-
Scholch, Alexander,
nineteenth century, when the influx of visitors Palestine in hamic religions, and pilgrimage was just another
Transformation,
had completely destabilised the city in terms of 1856–1882: Studies in of the city’s industries. Things began to change
Social, Economic and
its civic space. This long century, from Napoleon’s in 1831 when the Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali
Political Development
invasion of Egypt in 1798 to the British occupa- (Beirut: Institute for revolted against Constantinople and occupied the
Palestine Studies, 2006),
tion of Jerusalem in 1917, was the period when 49 region of Syria, which included Palestine.2 This
Christian travel to Jerusalem reached its peak. 3 event began a process of loosening the region’s
A letter from 1839 por-
Several factors—the decline of the Ottoman trays the relative peace physical and intangible borders by showcasing
that was brought in by
Empire, a series of local and foreign reforms, and the Egyptian occupation: religious tolerance towards non-Muslims and
“let him be of whatso-
technological advancements—allowed the West even non-Ottoman subjects: pilgrim tolls were
ever religion he may, do
to reconquer the Holy Land through different him justice, as the Lord abolished, shrines of all denominations could
of the world desired of
means: tourism. During this era Jerusalem was us!” — The governor be erected, and a freedom of religious practice
of Jerusalem, Ahmed
transformed by the arrival of new types of pil- meant that Christians and Jews were now equal,
Duzdar, 1839. In _Kark,
grims: surveyors and tourists. Ruth, “Agricultural Land if not privileged, citizens.3
in Palestine. Letters to
The former appropriated the subjectivity of Sir Moses Montefiore, In an attempt to gain support from the
1839” in Jewish
a spiritual wanderer into that of a mission-driven West, Ali permitted diplomatic institutions to be
Historical Studies Vol. 29
military man. Steeped in religious curiosity and (1982-1986), 26 founded in Jerusalem: the first was the British
equipped with modern tools, the surveyors did 4
Scholch, Alexander, consulate in 1838, followed by the consulates
Palestine in
not perform religious rituals per se, but they were of Prussia (1842), France (1843), Sardinia (1843),
Transformation, 1856-
occupied with authenticating the Scriptures by 1882: Studies in Social, America (1844), and Austria-Hungary (1849).4
Economic and Political
studying the sacred topography of the Holy Land. Development (Beirut: Religious organisations were likewise welcome:
Institute for Palestine
Thanks to the Ottoman Land Code of 1858, the the Latin Patriarchate was revived in 1843 for the
Studies, 2006), 49
possibility of ownership allowed explorers to shift 5
first time since the Crusades, the Anglo-Episcopal
Ibid, 54
their investigation from the surface of the terrain See was established in 1841,5 and the Protestant
6
Ibid, 51
to its depth, where evidence of Christian heritage Church inaugurated its first ‘cathedral’ in 1849,
7
could be recovered. Kark and Oren- thus Declaring itself an equal to the promi-
Nordheim, Jerusalem
The exponential growth of archaeological and Its Environs, 29–30 nent Orthodox and Catholic communities in
sites changed the landscape of Jerusalem. Under Jerusalem.6
the guise of spirituality, a Christian narrative Despite his efforts to win the endorsement
was memorialised in a series of historic mon- of the West, Ali was ultimately disarmed by the
uments that were ritualised, naturalised, and peasant revolts that erupted in Palestine, which
commodified by a mass movement of tourists— resulted in raids, destruction, and famine.7 He
privileged travellers hoping to locate (and, to a retreated from the region in 1840, but his encour-
certain extent, to project) a particular memory in agement of ‘soft’ Western imperialism could not
and on the land. The ritualisation of Jerusalem’s be reversed. European powers now had a territo-
city space by tourists perpetuated the process of rial footprint in the Holy Land (a territory whose
valorisation (enhancement or expansion), defined boundaries were much clearer to Westerners
as increasing the value of a certain resource in than to the local population) in the form of dip-
order to generate surplus. The heritage project in lomatic relations and official religious institu-
Jerusalem proved instrumental in the valorisa- tions, allowing them to mobilise their power for
tion of its monuments: over the twentieth cen- its official survey. Holy Land exploration was not
tury, the British mandate would entirely reshape a new phenomenon: in 333 AD, the pilgrim from
the city by simplifying its past for the sake of Bordeaux recorded his encounter with Biblical
familiarity, legibility, and profitability. Palestine in great detail, and the Dominican Felix
Fabri wrote a descriptive travelogue in 1483 that

CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 77


Fig 1: Homes of the British Embassy (left) and the American Consulate (right)
would be used by both physical and virtual pil-
grims for centuries to come.8 What made them
unique within the sphere of pilgrim diaries is
that they downplayed the subjective element of
their journey in favour of what can anachronisti-
cally be described as a scientific observation of the
sites, including measurements, sketches, detailed
plans, and comparative observations.9
Not until the nineteenth century would this
sense of curiosity and desire to locate the “truth”
about Christ’s land be met with such favourable
geopolitical conditions. The 1839 Ottoman Tanzimat
(literally ‘reorganisation’) was an Empire-wide
reform echoing the seismic shifts that took place
in Europe in the nineteenth century. It included
the introduction of basic civil liberties like free-
dom and security, a reform of the banking system,
the replacement of religious with secular law, the
institutionalisation of labour through guilds, and
a new Ottoman flag and anthem. Most impor-
tantly for Palestine, the Tanzimat introduced a
new land code that was designed to centralise
power and increase the Empire’s tax revenue by
improving agricultural production. Essentially,
it was an attempt to perpetuate certain tradi-
tions of Islamic law tenure while introducing a
fundamental trope of Western modernisation:
private property. The possibility to own land in
the Holy Land made possible what was described
as the ‘peaceful Crusade’, a gradual movement in
survey, archaeology and settlement of Europeans
and Americans to Palestine.10 Indeed, what
enabled this symbolic and literal ownership of
the land was the abstraction of land through a
new property regime, which allowed Western
78
8
The phenomenon
of virtual pilgrimage
includes the practice
of enclosed women in
late-medieval Europe,
who undertook a
‘mental’ pilgrimage
to Jerusalem without
leaving their convent
thanks to illustrated
guidebooks. This ritual
will be elaborated on in
the last chapter of this
dissertation.
9
Bliss, Frederick
Jones, Lectures on the
Development of Palestine
Exploration (New York:
Arno Press, 1903), 130
10
Scholch, Palestine in
Transformation, 53
Jerusalem, ca. 1900.
11
Fields, Gary,
Enclosure: Palestinian
Landscapes in a
Historical Mirror
(Oakland: University of
California Press, 2017),
177
12
Fields, Enclosure, 181
13
Ibid, 178–179
powers to advance not only political agendas, but
also economic aspirations.
In pre-reform Palestine, agriculture
engaged both urban dwellers and village farmers
in the production and exchange of grain, fruit,
and oil. Land was divided into numerous catego-
ries whose intricacy is beyond the scope of this
paper; however, it is crucial to understand that
before the 1858 Land Code, the concept of private
property was unknown in Palestine: the majority
of the population (about 80%) inhabited and cul-
tivated land that was owned by the Empire (Miri)
to whom they would pay tax (in kind or cash)
through intermediary collectors, often the local
elites.11 Miri land accounted for about 90% of agri-
cultural land in the Empire, giving cultivators a
durable right of use yet no possession over the land
itself. In other words, a tree planted was owned
by the cultivator, but the land itself belonged to
the Sultan. Furthermore, the customary right to
cultivate Miri land was contingent on continuous
production: if left unattended for three years, the
land would revert back to the state.12
Other types of land that are relevant for
this discussion include the freehold Mulk, which
often consisted of urban plots for dwelling, and
Waqf, or Islamic trust, which was untaxable land
dedicated to services for the Muslim community
(such as mosques, education, roads, and resting
places for travellers).13 In many villages, the dis-
tribution of productive land was based on Musha
tenure, where cultivators shared collective rights
over land. In this self-governing model, parcels
of land were redistributed amongst the village
Hamulas (extended families) every five years.14 As
TOWARDS JERUSALEM
Fig 2: Land parcellation and ownership in Hadera, by Max Shapiro (1895)
all production was taxed by collectors (who were 14
Redistribution of process, it abolished existing notions of collectiv-
land was dictated based
themselves pressured by the Empire), this system on the capacity of each
ity in favour of speculative investment targeted
meant that the risks posed by the uncertainty of hamula (an extended at increasing the value of soil. This commodifi-
family that provided
agricultural life would be pooled, thus prevent- economic and social sup- cation of land into an immovable asset was the
port to its members) to
ing the impoverishment of individual farmers. cultivate their share of
manifestation of the state’s attempt to spatialise
However, in terms of surplus, it also meant that their land, based on the its power under the Tanzimat reforms by ordering,
number of male labour-
there was little incentive for individual farmers ers and animal-drawn regulating, and classifying economic and social
ploughs
to improve the land by fertilising the soil or plant- activities.15
15
ing trees. Islamoglu, Huri, Though it was not successful on all fronts,
“Property as a Contested
Since the Land Code sought to dramati- Domain: A Reevaluation the reform effectively liberalised the land mar-
of the Ottoman Land
cally improve the Empire’s revenue, the reform Code of 1858”, in New
ket in Palestine.16 The abstraction of territory
targeted two factors: the amount of land that Perspectives on Property through mapping and registration reshaped the
and Land in the Middle
was being cultivated and the incentive of each East ed. Roger Owen land according to a regime of enclosure and exclu-
(Cambridge: Harvard
cultivator to increase production. The former University Center for
sion. Under the new legal conditions, land could
was increased by awarding land-by-subscription Middle Eastern Studies, be freely alienated and sold without discrimina-
2001), 12
to those cultivating ‘dead’ land; the latter was tion—even to foreigners.17 Though the Christian
16
The musha tenure
bolstered by allowing tenured farmers on Miri remained until the twen-
Church had held ecclesial properties in Palestine
land to assume private ownership (giving the tieth century, and the since Byzantine times, only after the reform was
Ottomans did not have a
cultivator a full right of possession and heritable proper cadastral survey, it allowed to expand, develop, and enclose its
thus unable to connect
rights), in contrast to the collective Musha system. individuals to plots of
own missionary institutions, educational facil-
Peasant ownership of land through title deeds land for registration. — ities, hospices and hospitals. These included the
Fields, Enclosure, 194
had two benefits for the empire: it forced culti- German deaconess Hospital, the Anglican hospi-
17
Fields, Enclosure, 195
vators to register their land and thus to subject tal, the Notre dame Hospice and the Italian hos-
18
it to regular taxation, and it allowed individual Kark and Oren- pital, as well as St Joseph nursing school.18 On a
Nordheim, Jerusalem
accumulation by encouraging improvement of and Its Environs, 79 larger scale, the monumental Russian compound
a territory that was no longer shared. This shift was built on a hill across from the Old City under
from use-rights to private ownership re-ordered the name “Nova Yerusalima”, with an invest-
the land by employing the rhetoric of prog- ment of about 250,000 pounds sterling from the
ress, improvement, and modernisation; in the Russian government.19 These ventures were to
CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 79
 Fig 4: Left: Robinson’s Arch (Arch of the Solomonian bridge that
linked Moria to Zion, discovered in 1838 and still called by the
same name) projecting from the retaining walls of Temple Mount
Fig 5: Right: Restoration of Robinson’s Arch by Ernest Forrest
1900–1920.

28
Ibid
The enclosed perimeter of the “Russian
Compound”. The parcellation of land is 29
Thomson, William and dysentery were to be solved by a donation
clearly visible both within and outside the walls
(1860s). Source: Michael Maslan/Getty Images
McClure, The Land and from an English noblewoman who was eager to
the Book: Or Biblical
Illustrations Drawn from rebuild the city’s water system.31 In 1864, she pro-
the Manners and Customs,
the Scenes and Scenery of vided £500 to the Royal Engineers to conduct an
of Biblical Geography”. The certainty introduced the Holy Land (London: T. accurate study of the city. Led by Captain Charles
Nelson and Sons, 1854),
by his scientific (and pseudo-scientific) method- introduction William Wilson, this was the first Western mis-
Fig 3: The enclosed perimeter of the “Russian Compound”
the parcellation of land is clearly visible both within and outside the walls (1860s) ology inspired generations of religious-oriented 30
Bliss, Lectures on the sion to be sent by a government body rather
explorers to seek the paradoxical ‘religious truth’ development of Palestine than merely inspired by personal curiosity and
Exploration, 207
provide pilgrims with a home in the holy city, 19
Cohen-Hattab, Kobi tions of natural elements, as well as an atlas of that could be differentiated from what Robinson interests.32 This time, skilled surveyors utilised
31
and Shoval, Noam, Lady Angela Burdett-
as well as subsidies in the form of food, lodging Tourism, Religion and
fauna, flora, and climate.23 However, unlike his referred to as legendary traditions.28 His noble in- Couts, in Galor, Finding modern equipment to map the city at 1:2,500
and medical aid, while allowing foreign powers Pilgrimage in Jerusalem predecessors, who followed well-trodden paths, tentions notwithstanding, his statements were Jerusalem, 30 scale, including the city walls and gates, layout of
(Oxford and New York:
to expand their control on the ground.20 Beyond Routledge, 2015), 8 recapitulated previously-written accounts, and nonetheless revealing of the paternalistic ap- 32
Moscrop, John James, streets, and locations of important buildings and
Measuring Jerusalem:
the accommodation of pilgrims, the mechanisms 20
Ibid, 30
relied on information provided by local monastic proach to the territory and the ease with which The Palestine Exploration public facilities.33 The resulting “Ordnance Survey
by which land was privatised, alienated and sold 21
institutions, Robinson decided to question the he discarded centuries of histories, a sentiment Fund and British of Jerusalem” was the first accurate map of the
Galor, Katharina, Interests in the Holy Land
led to its radical transformation in the decades Finding Jerusalem: ecclesiastical traditions of nineteenth-century of Western superiority that would be repeated by (Leicester: Leicester city, and proved invaluable to the Empire in its
Archaeology between University Press, 2000),
to come by allowing Western exploration on the Science and Ideology
Palestine by using his own methods: a measuring future travellers-cum-colonisers. 73 eventual expansion to Palestine.
surface of the land—and into its depths. (Oakland: University of tape, minute observations, and a detailed system While Robinson expanded the field of vision 33 While the improvement plan for Jerusalem’s
California Press, 2017), Galor, Finding
29 of orthography.24 by questioning existing traditions, he was still Jerusalem, 30 water supply was never realised, Wilson’s survey
22
Robinson, Edward,
Thanks to his rigour, Robinson discovered confined to the idiom of land-and-book research, 34
Lipman, V. D., “The precipitated the foundation of the largest enter-
Biblical Researches hundreds of previously unknown or unrecognised where one was to be read in light of the other.29 Origins of the Palestine prise of Western biblical inquiry, the Palestine
in Palestine and the Exploration Fund”,
ACT I: Adjacent Regions sites, amongst them the remains of an arch that led That is to say, his mission was to identify and Palestine Exploration Exploration Fund.34 The PEF was launched in 1865
THE EXPLORER-SURVEYOR (London: John Murray,
1856), vol. 1, vii, in
to the Temple Mount (known today as “Robinson’s authenticate sites mentioned in the Scripture, not
Quarterly 120, no. 1
(1988): 45–54 before a group of clergymen, scientists and public
The quintessential pilgrim-explorer of Biblical Bliss, Lectures on the Arch”) and the Siloam tunnel that runs beneath to conduct a general topographic or archaeologi- 35 officials.35 The Archbishop of York introduced the
development of Palestine The meeting took place
Palestine was Edward Robinson. Born in 1794 in Exploration, 203 the city into the Shiloach fountain, Jerusalem’s cal study of a given area. When encountering an in Willis’s Rooms in St Fund:
James Street on June
Connecticut, Robinson studied law, mathematics, 23
Bliss, Lectures on the
first water source.25 Robinson’s three-volume ancient Greek inscription along one of his routes, 22, 1865. It was chaired
and Greek, spending his early career translating development of Palestine publication, Biblical Researches in Palestine (1841), for example, he did not bother to interpret the by William Thomson, Our object is strictly an inductive inquiry. We are not to
Exploration, 9–11, 146 Archbishop of York, and
the New Testament into English and publishing was widely accepted in the West; it won him a text as the site was not on his biblical checklist; attended by twenty-five be a religious society; we are not about to launch into any
24 men including clergy-
Ibid, 211
Hebrew-English lexicons of the Old Testament. gold medal from the Royal Geographical society when he passed by what would later be recognised men, scientists, and controversy; we are about to apply the rules of science,
25
In 1838, a year after being appointed as the first Ibid, 164, in London in 1842.26 In the preface to the first vol- as the remains of the ancient walls of Jericho, other public officials which are so well understood by us in other branches, to
such as bankers and
professor of biblical literature in the Theological 26
Galor, Finding ume, Robinson explained his intentions: Robinson dismissed the site as a mount of “rub- members of parliament. an investigation into the facts concerning the Holy Land.36
Jerusalem, 29 — Lipman, The Origins of
Seminary in New York, Robinson travelled to bish” due to its distance from known sites.30 This the Palestine Exploration
27
what was then Muhammad-Ali-occupied Pales- Robinson, Biblical We wish it to be regarded merely as a beginning, a first mode of specific inquiry changed in the 1860s Fund, 49 Faced with controversies amongst Christian de-
Researches, xi
tine.21 Thanks to the easing of travel restrictions, attempt to lay open the treasures of Biblical Geography when European powers began to send a different 36
William Thomson, nominations (notably between Anglo-Catholics
Archbishop of York, in
his profound knowledge of the Scriptures, and and History still remaining in the Holy Land; treasures kind of explorer—not the learned scholars of the his opening speech to and Evangelicals), the Fund was able to unite
his interpreter Eli Smith, Robinson could see which have lain for ages unexplored, and had become so Bible, but surveying military men. In that sense, the PEF. — PEF, Report of men in and outside the Church by hailing the
Proceedings (1865), 3 —
what he described as ‘the promised land’ unfold covered with the dust and rubbish of many centuries [...] it is perhaps unsurprising that the first survey Lipman, The Origins of Bible not only as a religious guide but as a his-
the Palestine Exploration
before his eyes.22 Similar to those before him, he May He, who has thus far sustained me, make it useful for was framed not by religious intentions but by a Fund, 4 torical document whose merit was yet to be fully
saw the Scriptures as a guidebook of topographic the elucidation of His truth!27 prototypical colonial motivation: improvement. understood. They claimed that the Holy Land
details, names of towns and villages, and loca- Indeed, Robinson came to be known as the “father Jerusalem’s recurring breakouts of cholera was “crying out for accurate investigation”37 and

80 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 81

 37
George Grove, founder
of the PEF, in a letter to
that their publications would consist of facts, not The Times, January 3,
1865
opinions. By studying its archaeology, manners of
38
the local population, topography, geology, and the The PEF’s procee-
Wdings openly stated
natural sciences, the PEF could settle once and for that their efforts would
strengthen the faith
all the various speculations regarding the origin by making the Bible
of the Christian faith. more tangible: “Having
learned by our experi-
The PEF thus encapsulated the spirit of the ence that the light which
has of late been thrown
time: on the one hand, it employed scientific upon these scenes has
tools to produce knowledge about distant lands, strengthened our own
faith, we feel confident
a quintessential Victorian trope (in fact, Queen that such an effort must
strengthen the faith
Victoria was one of its first patrons); on the other of our people (Hear,
hand, it was religiously motivated, responding to Hear).” PEF, Report of
Proceedings (1865), 5
the industrialisation and secularisation endemic
39
PEF, Report of
to England’s academic circles and to some extent Proceedings (1865), 4
European society at large.38 These two parallel sen- 40
Galor, Finding
timents were imbued with a sense of patrimony Jerusalem, 28
that was explicit in the PEF’s opening statement: 41
The letter specified
“This country of Palestine belongs to you and me, that while there are
strategic motivations for
it is essentially ours […] We mean to walk through these maps, “[t]here are
perhaps other reasons of
Palestine in the breadth of it because that land has a sentimental character
been given onto us.”39 In the following decades, that may perhaps be of
some weight [in complet-
similar organisations joined England’s colo- ing the survey].” — Home
Office to the Chief
nial-religious mission, including the American Clerk of the War Office,
Palestine Exploration Society (1870), the German May 19, 1877, page 29.
Quoted in Moscrop,
Society for the Exploration of Palestine (1878) and Measuring Jerusalem,
118
the American School of Oriental Research (1900),
42
although the PEF remained the wealthiest and Hopkins, I.W.J.,
“Nineteenth-Century
most prolific of these institutions.40 Maps of Palestine:
Dual-Purpose Historical
In 1878 the PEF published the ambitious Evidence”, Imago Mundi
“Survey of Western Palestine” (SWP) based on 22 (1968): 30–36 Fig 7: Map of Western Palestine, Special Section Illustrating the
New Testament (1884)
triangulation across the length of the territory 43
Fields, Enclosure,
8–10
of the so-called Holy Land. Funded by the War
44
Office, the SWP had a clear strategic objective Ibid. by highlighting the specificity of the Christian
of achieving knowledge over the region in order 45
Said, Edward, narrative, excluding existing traditions, and
Orientalism (New York:
to secure the Suez Canal (opened in 1869) and Pantheon Book, 1978)
eliminating the complexity that had been shared
protect India in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877. and Said, Edward, for centuries. In Enclosure, Gary Fields argues that
Culture and Imperialism
However, the survey had an additional layer of (London: Chatto & cartography is a technological way of owning the
Windus, 1993).
“sentimental character” (as the Chief of the War land by mapping arguments over a represented
Office described it) and thus includes biblical, territory.43 As an instrument of force, he argues
early Christian, and Crusaders sites.41 These maps, that maps not only shape consciousness about the
which took seven years to complete, provided the land, but they “become models for and not maps
locations of every Tel, ruin, and contemporary vil- of what they represent.”44 This rearrangement of
lage in the land, more than 10,000 place-names geological strata landscaped the PEF’s vision onto
in total (compared with Robinson’s 1,712), many of the ground, transforming it into what Edward
them previously unknown.42 Amongst the sheets Said refers to as ‘imagined geographies’—where
were two special editions dedicated to illustrat- groups project their own reading of a patrimonial
ing the Old and New Testaments by mapping territory before they act upon it with physical
the Scriptures onto the terrain, including the force.45 This particular vision was based on mem-
boundaries of Israel’s twelve tribes, the borders ories that had been constructed in the West for
of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the generations: it would soon spatialise itself in
locations of Canaanite cities and the divisions Jerusalem, both symbolically and literally, in a
of King Solomon’s governments; the map of the series of historic monuments.
New Testament also included cross-referenced Before addressing the concept of the historic
biblical, Talmudic and modern names. monument, we should understand what consti-
The SWP presents a moment in which the cer- tutes a monument in Jerusalem. As this thesis
tainty of modernity was met with something shows, from as early as the fourth century AD,
that was imaginary, mythical, and spiritual. No monuments have been erected in Jerusalem over
longer disputed or misidentified, Robinson’s places where biblical events took place in order to
studies and the PEF’s maps were actively appro- assure their emotional affectivity on the members
Fig 6: Plan of the Temple Mount by Ermete Pierotti for the Palestine Exploration Fund, showing
subterranean water channels and cisterns (1862) priating the land and demarcating their territory of the group and their ability to recollect memory.

82 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 83

 48
Williams,
Rosalind, Notes on the
Underground: An Essay
on Technology, Society,
Biblical Jerusalem that could be transformed into
and the Imagination a historic monument, which would then attract
(Cambridge: MIT Press,
1992), 24 pilgrims and revenue.
49
Dixon, William
While each institution sought after differ-
Hepworth, The Holy Land ent traces of religious narratives, according to
(London: Chapman and
Hall, 1869), preface (my its group’s own collective memories, one senti-
italics)
ment was shared by all: historic Jerusalem was
50
Halbwachs, On hidden beneath the layers of a modern city, and
Collective Memory, 225
the indigenous inhabitants of the city had been
51
Both the Jewish and
Muslim communities
oblivious to this fact for centuries. “One of the
opposed excavations in wonders” of Jerusalem, writes Helen B. Harris
and around the Old City.
In the 1860s Charles in Pictures of the East (1897), is that “deep under-
Fig 10: Restoration of the Ecce Homo Arch and Gabbatha by
Warren attempted to dig
Ernest Forrest Beaumont (1900–1920)
in Jerusalem and was
eventually blocked by
the religious authorities
of both Jewish, Muslim,
and Roman-Catholics. In
process, the underworld was declared to be the the mid-1860s he man-
setting of the past’s truth; as Rosalind Williams aged to go on his own,
and with his experience
argues, “the earth’s inner space may no longer as a military engineer
and mining he dug shafts
be regarded as sacred, but is still a repository of and tunnels, but this
spiritual value because it is assumed to hold the time ran into diplomatic
difficulties. — Galor,
secrets of lost time.”48 In the case of Jerusalem, the Finding Jerusalem, 29;
Moscrop, Measuring
sacred ground was seen as a speculative archive of Jerusalem, 78
biblical residues—referred to by a founder of the 52
This increases the
PEF as a “treasury of truth”49—where foundations rivalry between nations
Fig 8: Detail, Map of Western Palestine, Special Section Illustrating the Old Testament (1884) and raised the pressure
of Western society could be identified and memo- on the English delega-
rialised by appropriating elements of the existing tions as Russia Russian
46 has been digging near
These monuments, such as the Churches of the Choay, Françoise, The city into historic monuments. In that process, the the holy sepulchre and
Invention of the Historic under their pilgrim’s
Holy Sepulchre or the Nativity that were dis- Monument, trans. ‘debris’ of other narratives was discarded, thus hostel, while Germany
Lauren M. O’Connell
cussed in chapter one, were erected with an a (Cambridge: Cambridge
legitimising future actions of exclusion, displace- and France for compet-
Fig 11: Enclosure and development around the discovered “Joab’s
ing for add itional sites
priori commemorative purpose.46 They were con- Universiy Press, 2001), ment, and demolition, advancing what is referred and permissions.
Well” (1898–1914)
13 — Moscrop, Measuring
ceived and erected as instruments of recollection, to by Halbwachs as a “colonisation of memory.” Jerusalem, 169
47
Ibid
denoting sanctity, continuity, and power. In time, In what is to follow, we will witness how archae- 53
ground, beneath the tread of the busy multi-
Lemire, Vincent,
additional memories proliferated as localities: ology was mobilised to bring invisible facts into Jerusalem 1900: The tude of all nationalities that throng the leading
Holy City in the Age of
the place where Christ was stripped off his gar- the visible surface, and how the movement of pil- Possibilities, trans.
streets of modern Jerusalem, lie the remains of
ments, where the apostles met after resurrection, grims have fixed particular memories in space.50 Catherine Tihanyi and successive buried cities of the past.”54 Like Harris,
Lys Ann Weiss (Chicago:
the column of flagellation, where the crown of University of Chicago American clergyman Henry Van Dyke saw this
Press, 2017), 47
thorns was found, and many more. However, lost past as a “hidden present” where he could
54
these symbolic memories were not monumen- Harris, Helen B., find “the soul of that land where so much that
Pictures of the East:
talised with structure ex-nihilo: their mnemonic Fig 9: Pilgrims carrying the cross on the Via Dolorosa ACT II: Sketches of Biblical is strange is memorable.”55 These attitudes were
associations were infused into existing places
Jerusalem (ca. 1910)
THE ARCHAEOLOGIST Scenes in Palestine and
Greece (London: James
common amongst explorers-cum-archaeologists
in the city that often carried no previous signifi- Although archaeologists were active in Palestine Nisbet & Co., 1897), 6 and clergymen-cum-scientists who devalued the
cance. This process of turning a non-descript site condemned Jesus to his death did not, originally, since the mid-nineteenth century, actual digging 55
Van Dyke, Henry, Out- existing Jerusalem in favour of Christ’s city. In
of-doors in the Holy Land
into one that commemorates historical events have a mnemonic intention; its significance in into the ground did not officially commence un- (Toronto: Copp. Clark
Buried Cities Recovered (1882), the American Consul
is what Choay defines as creating a historic monu- the present, however, is that it serves as the point til the 1880s. Prior to that, conditions were not Co, 1908), 5 in Jerusalem, Frank De Hass, writes:
ment. In many respects, the historic monument is of recollection of the saviour’s trial. The occasions favourable for several reasons: local Jewish and 56
De Hass, Frank, Buried
Cities Recovered: or,
antithetical to the monument: it is “constituted a on which Christ fell under the weight of the Cross Muslim communities often resisted the work— Explorations in Bible
Beneath this accumulation of filth, covered with rub-
posteriori by the converging gazes of the historian or encountered various characters (Mary, Symon which caused disturbance to daily prayers or were Lands, giving the results bish, lies the ‘City of the Great King’. Dig down almost
of recent researches in
and the amateur who choose it from a mass of of Cyrene, Veronica, or the Women of Jerusalem) considered desecrating51—and the Ottomans the Orient, and recovery anywhere within the old walls [...] and you will come upon
of many places in sacred
existing edifices.”47 In other words, structures have been localised in pieces of pavement, a showed minimal interest in such activity, as they and profane history long
broken columns, grand gateways, massive substructures,
that did not initially have a memorial purpose corner of a street, or fragment of buildings in could not assume ownership over found items. considered lost: illustrat- and other remains of a great city [...] This buried city is the
ed with new maps and
can be converted into a historic monument on Jerusalem that have since assumed a religious Permits often depended on diplomatic relations numerous original en- Jerusalem of Christ.56
gravings. (Philadelphia:
the basis of a particular knowledge that is based meaning within the systematised recollection of and religious bodies, which were in a constant Bradley & Co., 1882),
on the Christian Bible or the traditions that have Stations of the Cross. conflict of interests over publication of theories 127–128, quoted in De Hass calls for the physical removal
Kattaya, Mona, “Writing
since evolved around it. The foundation of a historic monument and future funding to secure more strategic the ‘Real Jerusalem’: of post-biblical strata, which he sees as the
British and American
The Via Crucis, for example, was staged as is not based on sentiment or scripture, but on land.52 However, this changed after 1858, when Travel Accounts in the
excess debris of ‘profane’ and ‘fake’ civilisations.
a sequence of dramatic events designed to cycli- an acquired, ‘objective’ data. This idiosyncratic the Land Code allowed Church bodies (such as Nineteenth Century”, Similarly, the Swiss theologian Philip Schaff
Jerusalem Quarterly
cally recollect the Passion of Christ. In chapter knowledge emerged as a discipline in the second the Greek and Russian Orthodox, Armenians, and 44 (The Institute for wrote that the “Jerusalem of our Saviour and
Palestine Studies, 2010):
three we witness the construction of the Stations half of the nineteenth century in the form of the Catholic Dominicans and Franciscans) to buy 19
the apostles lies buried [...] under the ruins and
of the Cross with the sole purpose of staging this biblical exploration. Through excavation, a non- land and freely excavate it as they pleased.53 Their 57
rubbish of centuries.”57 Like them, the French
Schaff, Philip,
theatrical ritual. The room in which Pontius Pilate descript site could become a holy space. In this hope was to find within their domain a trace of Through Bible Lands: explorer Pier Loti hoped that by digging beneath
Notes of Travel in
Egypt, the Desert, >>>

84 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 85

 63
Even though in the
1960s and 70s new exca-
This was the general sentiment for many holy vations showed that both
the Ecce Homo arch, the
sites, whose authenticity was questioned but subterranean room and
nevertheless accepted. What initially emerged as the cobblestones date
to the second century—
Peter’s prison has remained as such, even though over a century after the
events of the Passion—
other researchers have discredited the initial they nevertheless remain
findings. This tendency encapsulates what Vin- a Catholic pilgrimage
site, protected by the
cent Lemire calls a patrimonial inertia, a condition French consulate and
frequented by Jerusalem
in which a historic monument’s status, once des- travellers. — Lemire,
ignated, is rarely reversed.63 Jerusalem 1900, 54

While the notion of a patrimonial inertia 64

Writing in the
fifteenth century, Felix
is true for most of Jerusalem’s sites, it was not Fabri says: “From all that
the case with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, has been said, the devout
and quiet pilgrim should
whose authenticity remained contested amongst grasp the fact that Fig 14: Gordon’s Calvary (left enclosure) and Skull Hill (centre),
whether the cave as it
explorers and archaeologists. While pre-modern stands at the present day
with the Muslim Cemetery perched above.

pilgrims accepted the uncertainty of the site, in be the true and entire
monument of Christ, or
the nineteenth century this ambiguity was no whether a part of it be
there, or whether none
longer tolerable.64 The first volume of the PEF’s of it be there, matters
Recovery of Jerusalem (1871) read: “There are differ- very little with one way
or the other, because the
ences of opinions […] whether the present church main fact connected with
the place abides true …
of the Holy Sepulchre does or does not cover the where there is a monu-
true Sepulchre of our Saviour; if not, whether ment erected to Christ,
and where the Sacrament
the true site can yet be recovered.”65 Likewise, of his body has been of-
ten celebrated.” Quoted
Fig 12: Excavations on Ophel, showing rock-hewn steps (left) and Lieutenant Claude Reignier Conder of the Royal in Bliss, Lectures on the
foundations of a tower in Siloam (right), ca. 1900
Engineers writes in 1878 that “the study of the development of Palestine
exploration, 29
rock [the existing Calvary] drives us irresistibly to
>>> and Palestine (New 65
Palestine Exploration
the Old City, “the Jerusalem of Christ will soon York: American Tract
followed by Christ […] The sister who accompanied me the conclusions given above, and thus forbids us Fund, Vol. I; “The
be reconstituted”,58 showcasing the belief that Society 1878), 234–235, in these vaults, throwing over the age-old walls the light to accept the traditional site of the Sepulchre as Recovery of Jerusalem: A
partially quoted in Narrative of Exploration
all Western scholars had to do was find the ‘Bible Kattaya, “Writing the of her lantern, has succeeded in imparting to me for the genuine.”66 The dispute surrounding the existing and Discovery in the City Fig 15: Easter morning at the Garden Tomb (1939)
‘Real Jerusalem’”, 20 and the Holy Land by
under the cobblestones’ of modern Jerusalem. moment her own ardent convictions. I, too, in the presence site raised questions that were far beyond histor- Wilson; Warren; Walter
58
In other words, it is there that memory can be Loti, Pierre, Jérusalem of these debris, am much moved as she herself.61 ical curiosity, and resulted in the invention of an Morrison; Ordnance its location on a site that had been speculatively
(Paris: Calmann-Lévy, Survey of the Peninsula
literally excavated and brought into the surface 1895), trans. W. P. Baines alternative holy site: the Garden Tomb. of Sinai: Made with identified as the Tomb of Christ due to a supposed
(Philadelphia: D. McKay, the Sanction of the
where it will be readily available for recollection. 1916), 111
Recollection thus occurs based on affectivity; The British Major-General Charles Gordon arrived Right Honourable Sir
connection between the name of the place and
One of the recovered sites was the Sisters of 59 this ancient room gained a mnemonic function in Palestine in 1883. Following a quest to find the John Pakington, Bart., the skull-shaped rock above.69 One of the stron-
Lemire, Jerusalem Secretary of State for
Zion Convent, built on land purchased by Father 1900, 48 thanks to a pseudo-scientific fragment, a local fig- exact location of the Garden of Eden in Seychelles, War by C. W. Wilson; H. gest advocates of this site was Claude Reignier
P. Palmer”, The North
Marie-Alphonse de Ratisbonne in the 1860s. 60
“When Pilate
ure of religious authority, and proximity to other American Review 113, no.
Conder, who had written an account that dis-
Until excavations under the convent began, the therefore heard these holy sites. Following the monastery’s discovery, 232 (July 1871): 154–173 carded the existing Calvary and assumed this an-
words, he brought Jesus
convent carried no mnemonic function as it out, and sat down on the other holy sites proliferated nearby based on their 66
Conder, Claude cient rock tomb as the true site of Christ’s burial.70
judgment-seat at a place Reignier, Tent Work in
was merely in the vicinity of holy sites, such as called The Pavement, but
perceived authenticity. Soon around Gabbatha Palestine: A Record of
In his Tent Work in Palestine (1878), Conder explains
the ruined section of a Roman arch that came to in Hebrew, Gabbatha.” — were erected the Monastery of the Flagellation, Discovery and Adventure, his findings using a process of identification sim-
John 19:13. vols. 1 and 2 (New York:
be known as the Ecce Homo Arch, where Christ’s where Christ was flogged by the Romans, and D. Appleton, 1878), 371 ilar to that applied to some of the Stations of the
61
Loti, Jérusalem,
trial took place. Determined to find a biblical 89, quoted in Lemire,
the Church of the Condemnation, where Christ 67
Monk, Daniel
Cross: he emphasised its proximity to the place of
trace beneath the convent, the Sisters discovered Jerusalem 1900, 49 picked up his cross. In addition to events related Bertrand, An St Stephen’s Martyrdom and to a Sephardic Jew-
Aesthetic Occupation:
the remains of a Roman room and pieces of an 62
Harris, Pictures of the to Christ and the Via Crucis, other minute details The Immediacy of ish cemetery, as well as its location outside of the
East, 5 (my italics) Architecture and the
ancient pavement, twelve meters below.59 As they from the Scriptures were localised. The patrimo- Palestine Conflict
Old City walls, as written in the New Testament.71
could only dig within the territory owned by the nial inflation included not only religious bodies (Durham: Duke Conder was convinced that the existing Calvary
University Press, 2002),
Convent, the Sisters could not explore where the but also national institutions. As Hanna Harris 18 “lowers the Christian faith in the eyes of the Mos-
path led; however, its orientation in the direc- writes, the English hospital excavated under its 68
There was a belief that
lem” because of its desecrating falsehood.72 After
tion of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (where premises to discover: a pattern on the terrain laying out his detailed observation and investiga-
would suggest the
Calvary was monumentalised) and proximity to shape of a skull. Claude tion into his Calvary, he concludes, “we cannot,
Conder writes: “Others,
the Ecce Homo Arch was sufficient to establish a very ancient and massive prison [...] with several cells including many of the
I would argue, consider these facts to be mere
the site as a node in the route of the Stations of enclosed, and it is thought that very possibly it was in one Fig 13: Map of the area around Skull Hill and the Garden Tomb
early fathers, suppose it coincidence; they are rather strong confirmation
to refer to the shape of
the Cross. Thus was born the new historic mon- of these that the Apostle Peter was imprisoned and from property in the 1880s
the ground—a rounded of the accuracy of the more generally accepted
hill, in form like a skull.”
ument of Gabbatha (Aramaic) or Lithostrōtos which he was so miraculously delivered, as described in — Conder, Tent Work in
views regarding the topography and monuments
(Greek), mentioned in the Gospel of John as the the Acts of the Apostles. [...] even if it be not the actual Gordon visited Jerusalem with the aim of locating Palestine, 372. of ancient Jerusalem.”73
place of Christ’s trial.60 Pierre Loti, who visited the prison, it must be of equal antiquity, and serves to illus- another sign of the divinity in the natural world: 69
“[The] hill is left It took a decade to secure the purchase of the
steeply rounded on its
site and was guided by a nun, writes: trate the Scripture incident most vividly.62 Golgotha, the hill where Christ was Crucified, west, north, and east
site that came to be known as “Gordon’s Calvary.”
also known as the place of the skull, or Calvary.67 sides forming the back Initially bought by a Swiss investor, it was later
and sides of the kranion,
One is able by piecing together theoretically the fragments Harris admits that even if it is not exactly a pris- Gordon traced contour lines onto Jerusalem’s PEF or skull. The skull-like collectively purchased by the Garden Tomb
front, or face, on the
of the Herodian roads and the debris of the ancient on, nor Peter’s cell, she can still understand the Surveys in search of patterns that would suggest south side is formed by
Association, a private organisation composed of
ramparts to discover and follow as far as Calvary the way Scriptures better due to its authentic character. the position of Golgotha,68 only to finally confirm the deep perpendicular noblemen and women who showed an “earnest
cutting and removal
of the ledge. To the
observer, at a distance,
86 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— the eyeless socket of the
skull would be suggested
The Innocents Abroad 87
at once by the yawning
cavern, hewn within

Fig 16: The Garden Tomb in 2020. Photo by the author
desire […] that the garden and its tomb should
be secured from desecration on the one hand or
superstition on the other.”74 The Association pur-
chased the land and adjoining plots (measuring
6,440 sqm) that bordered the property of Muslims
and Greeks and was hidden beneath a Muslim
cemetery, perched on the so-called “Skull Hill”
above.75 Though the land was initially considered
as Mulk (freehold), in 1905 the association man-
aged to change its designation to Waqf in order to
prevent it from reverting back to the state when
its heirless owners would pass away.76 Over the
next decades, the Association refrained from
erecting structures within the grounds, investing
instead in a luscious garden around the tomb,
where Protestants could find secluded space for
contemplation.77 This pious environment was
radically different from the congested and con-
tested atmosphere in the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, located just a few hundred meters
to the south inside the Old City walls. Despite
the lack of a monument per se, the hewn rock
of the tomb and its surrounding gardens was
invested with a memorial function; it became
a historic monument of another typology—the
88
74
Hope, L. and
Hopkins, E., 1894.
from owning the holy places, the leaders of the The Garden Tomb is readily consumable by their target audience:
(Jerusalem) Purchase
Protestant community were compelled to invent Fund, February, GTA
pilgrims. Before describing Jerusalem’s tourism
their own historic monuments in order to assure Archive, in Kark, Ruth project, it is important to consider the interpre-
and Frantzman, Seth. J.,
the group’s faculty of recollection. “The Protestant Garden tation of valorisation not only by Choay (or as she
Tomb in Jerusalem,
This was the height of Jerusalem’s patrimo- Englishwomen, and a
called it in French, mise en valeur) but also by Karl
nial project, designed to attract Western pilgrims Land Transaction in Late Marx (or as he termed in German, Verwertung). In
Ottoman Palestine”,
to the city. The proliferation of historic monu- Palestine Exploration chapter four of Capital, Volume 1, Marx explains
Quarterly (November
ments countered the spiritual drainage emblem- 2010): 206
the difference between the Commodity-Money-
atic of industrial Europe, by providing a place 75
Commodity model (C-M-C)—in which a person
Ibid, 206
of spiritual worship and affective recollection. sells one commodity in order to buy another for
76
Ibid, 210
Thanks to scientific practices, existing elements use—and the Money-Commodity-Money model
77
such as a rock cave or a fragment of an arch could Ibid, 206 (M-C-M)—where a commodity is only bought
turn into proof of one’s own history. However, 78
Kark and Frantzman, to be resold at a higher price. The C-M-C circuit
The Protestant Garden
the scrutiny under which the materiality of the Tomb in Jerusalem, 201
is completed when the sale of one commodity
city was studied and designated also dissolved 79
enables the purchase of another, which is then
The Sultan in a firman
Jerusalem’s protective case of topographical and of May 1853, quoted in consumed. In contrast, M-C-M is an intermina-
Finkelman, Yifat, In
chronological ambiguity, which enabled its rela- Status Quo (Berlin: Hatje
ble process that begins and ends with money: it
tive coexistence, allowed for analogical flexibility, Cantz, 2018), 27 (my concludes a movement “only to begin it again”.
italics)
and defined its shared identity. In that sense, the Marx defines the distinction between the two
80
Cohen-Hattab and
patrimonial project was very much led by political Shoval, Tourism,
modes as “a palpable difference between the cir-
aspirations, tainted by a colonialist hue, and fed Religion and Pilgrimage culation of money as capital, and its circulation
in Jerusalem, 19
by not only nationalist ambitions but greed over as mere money.”82 In M-C-M, when the purchased
81
Choay, The Invention
land and resources. Indeed, this paper has yet to of the Historic
commodity is once again abstracted into money,
discuss explicitly the implications of European Monument, 143 the incremental growth of the original amount
penetration into the Holy Land for the commod- 82
Marx, Karl, Capital: is defined as surplus. This process of expansion
A Critique of Political
ification of pilgrimage and the role of capitalism Economy, Volume I: The
(or enhancement) of value is referred to as valo-
in shaping the architecture of the city, which is at Process of Production of risation. Therefore, to valorise in Marxist terms
Capital, first published
stake in this chapter and will be discussed below. in German (1867) trans. means to increase the surplus-value extracted
Samuel Moore and
Edward Aveling, ed.
from a commodity: valorisation is what converts
Frederick Engels ( Marx/ money into capital.
Engels Internet Archive,
1995, 1999), Chapter 4 In that sense, both Choay’s and Marx’s defi-
ACT III: 83
Cobbing, Felicity,
nitions of valorisation are at play in late nine-
THE TOURIST “Thomas Cook teenth-century Jerusalem. As explained below,
and the Palestine
The second half of the nineteenth century saw the Exploration Fund”, at the same time that its monuments were
Public Archaeology
total commodification of Jerusalem pilgrimage 11 (November 2012):
adapted to appear increasingly legible and com-
its face, beneath the
garden—which became a place for the recollec- into tourism. While this dissertation has sought 179–194 prehensible to visiting tourists, their potential
hill.‫ — ״‬Howe, Fisher,
The True Site of Calvary: tion for English and American Protestant com- to problematise spiritual journeys across many for profit was maximised through a system of
And Suggestions Relating
to the Resurrection (New munities. centuries through the lens of their secular moti- commodified pilgrimage. With fixed itineraries,
York: A.D.F. Randolph,
The invention of the Garden Tomb was as vations—cultural curiosity, political aspirations, a chain of hotels, and well-trained tour guides,
1871)
70
strategic as it was spiritual. Unlike other ‘redis- economic gain, and natural sceneries—these ob- the tourist industry was able to capitalise on
Conder, Tent Work
in Palestine, 374–377, covered’ holy sites in Jerusalem, the protestant jectives were never before pursued to such mag- Jerusalem’s symbolic value and valorise each of
in Moscrop, Measuring its sites as a productive asset. Practices of recov-
Golgotha not only added an additional site to the nitude. As explained below, pilgrimage—once a
Jerusalem, 168
71
pilgrim’s route, but also attempted to discredit solitary experience based on the moral unit of the ery, reconstruction, and restoration, as applied to
The location of the
wall is one of the biggest another. This was a deliberate decision on the individual—was now organised in large groups, the newly invented sites in the Holy Land, were
misunderstandings
part of the Protestants—who were not recognised sold as a leisure activity, and promoted as an established as fundamental mechanisms achiev-
in regard to Calvary.
Those who oppose the by the Ottomans as an autonomous confessional attraction—displaying all the characteristics of ing both forms of valorisation. On one hand,
fourth-century Golgotha
cite the fact that it community, and thus did not share a piece of modern tourism as we know it today.80 Pilgrim- they designate existing artefacts with a form of
should be outside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre like other
age was thus made lucrative by tourist agencies meaning that can be consumed by the religious
the city walls—but they
refer to the Ottoman denominations.78 In fact, the Status Quo agree- who fused business and missionary ventures, industry; on the other hand, they embody the
Walls which is extended.
The first-century wall ment from 1853 dictated: “The actual status quo administering Jerusalem’s heritage as a resource M-C-M model by investing in an archeological
is indeed closer to the
will be maintained and the Jerusalem shrines, to be enhanced—or valorised—for mass consump- site to legitimise its inclusion in the patrimonial
Temple Mount, and the
Holy Sepulchre is found whether owned in common or exclusively by the tion. circuit as a historic monument, thereby generat-
outside of it. This was
proved in 1894 when the Greek, Latin, and Armenian communities, will François Choay argues that valorisation ing surplus value by turning it into a marketable
PEF obtained a firman
all remain forever in their present state.”79 This (or enhancement) is the key to the heritage enter- tourist attraction. Both forms of valorisation will
from the Turkish govern-
ment for excavations in meant that nine sites in and around Jerusalem prise. It refers to the increase in value—cultural, be explored in further detail below.
Jerusalem. Bliss was in
charge of digging around and Bethlehem, with their intricate and frag- spiritual, intellectual, and of course, economic— The architect of Jerusalem’s tourism project
the walls of Jerusalem to
mented sacred spaces, would remain in the cus- which rises with the accessibility and legibility was Thomas Cook. Born in 1808 in Derbyshire,
establish the line of the
historic Third Wall of tody of the Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, of patrimonial constructions, such as historic England, Cook was a Baptist missionary who
Jerusalem prior to 70 AD.
Armenians, Syriac Orthodox, Coptic Christians, monuments.81 Valorisation transforms the his- was both a faithful Christian and a business-
72
Conder, Tent Work in
and Ethiopians in perpetuity. Forever excluded toric monument into an enhanced product that man.83 Starting from a small endeavour to
Palestine, 371
73
Ibid, 376
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 89
 84 90
Kark, Ruth, “From Cohen-Hattab and
Pilgrimage to Budding— Shoval, Tourism,
host Temperance Tours (helping men abstain The Role of Thomas the best time of the year for being in Palestine—the best Religion and Pilgrimage
Cook in the Rediscovery in Jerusalem, 128
from alcohol and nicotine) in 1841, Cook’s office of the Holy Land in the
travelling facilities, the best hotel accommodation—the
91
expanded in 1850 to arrange tours to Paris, Italy, Nineteenth Century”, best guides that can be engaged—the best places of inter- Hunter, Robert F.,
in Travellers in the “The Thomas Cook
and the Alps; in 1851 he escorted 165,000 peo- Levant: Voyagers and est to be visited—the routes to and from England—and Archive for the Study of
Visionaries, eds. Sarah Tourism in North Africa
ple to the Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Searight and Malcolm
the cost of the whole tour for two months.86 and the Middle East”,
Palace, providing transportation and accommo- Wagstaff (London: Review of Middle East
Astene, 2001), 159 Studies 36, no. 2 (Winter
dation. Conducting the tours in person, buying Indeed, Cook’s religious zeal and entrepreneurial 2003): 157–164
85
Cobbing, Thomas
wholesale tickets, and targeting the expanding Cook and the Palestine
spirit introduced modern tourism by marketing 92
Kark, From Pilgrimage
middle class—whose vacations were an integral Exploration Fund, 183 and turning the Holy Land into nothing less than to Budding, 165

part of ‘healthy work’—Cook positioned himself 86

at the forefront of the business of leisure-mak-
ing. The arrival of the steamship, improvement
of railways, and the paving of roads encouraged
his entrepreneurial spirit to expand his ‘educa-
tional’ services beyond Europe.84 Reflecting both
the era’s expansionist sensibilities and his own
missionary sentiments, Cook was oriented to the
East. It was there that he could combine the curi-
osity of the ancient world with the comfort and
security of modernism; above all, it is where he
could merge business with piety.
When Cook arrived in Palestine in 1864, he
wanted to revolutionise the existing model of
pilgrimage. Until then, visitors were responsible
for planning their own routes, hiring guides, pre-
paring food, and booking transfers and accom-
modations for themselves. They travelled in large
caravans that were crucial for economic and
security reasons, often in the company of officers
of the Ottoman army.85 Cook offered something
completely different: a packaged deal that would
provide all of his client’s needs on the ground. He
visited Palestine twice to make connections and
study the field so that he could promise his cli-
ents:
Fig 17: Map of Cook’s Palestine tour from 1873, showing the fixed itinerary through the
principal “points of interest”.
Kark, From Pilgrimage a resort: one London-based journalist wrote that
to Budding, 161
Cook’s travellers enjoyed a “healthful mode of
87
Neil, James, Palestine traveling […] with all the excitement and pleasure
Re-Peopled (London:
James Nisbet, 1883), of camp life, the deepest interest of its hallowed
23–27
spots, the wide field it allows for exploration,
88
Cohen-Hattab and and the wild beauty that lingers everywhere,
Shoval, Tourism,
Religion and Pilgrimage combined to make Palestine a place of resort as soon
in Jerusalem, 1
as the modern facilities for traveling brought
89
Cohen-Hattab and its shores an easy fortnight’s distance from our
Shoval, Tourism,
Religion and Pilgrimage own.”87
in Jerusalem, 27
In the spring of 1869, Thomas Cook led thirty
visitors on his first organised trip to Palestine.88
These pilgrim-tourists were led across the coun-
try on horseback and housed in camps that were
lavishly equipped with comfortable beds, dining
rooms, and washing facilities. Every morning,
these camps were easily dismantled, relocated,
and erected in the next station before the trav-
ellers would return from their day’s trip. Each
group was escorted by chefs, porters, donkeys,
and a dragoman—a local guide, translator, and
dispenser of baksheesh, or passage bribes on the
open road.89 Cook’s established familiarity with
local authorities allowed his tours to camp in
close proximity to the points of interest: in
Jerusalem, for example, his groups were deployed
Fig 18: State visit to Jerusalem of Wilhelm II of Germany in
1898, Visiting Tomb of Kings
by the Damascus and Jaffa Gates.90 By the 1870s,
he purchased land and built a storage facility for
his gear by the Old City; in the following years, he
bought additional plots in order to accommodate
his expanding agency. His first office in Jerusalem
was opened in 1881; by 1903, he already had three
in the city, in addition to outposts in Jaffa, Cairo,
Constantinople, Algiers, Tunis, and Khartoum.91
By 1882, less than fifteen years after he
had set up, Cook was responsible for the escort
of over two-thirds of all Holy Land travellers
arriving from the West.92 One of the keys to his
success, aside from catering to his clients’ needs
for comfort and security, was the introduction
of hotel coupons and circular notes. The former
were pre-purchased accommodation vouchers
that eliminated the need for currency exchange
and price haggling, and the latter were the fore-
runners of traveller’s cheques, replacing heavy
gold coins with notes that could be exchanged
in Cook’s agencies.93 This vast economic network
created a near-monopoly over the tourist indus-
try in the Holy Land, positioning Cook and his
clients as privileged amongst Jerusalem’s visitors;
in one recorded anecdote, he threatened to with-
draw his business from a local hotelier if he “does
not treat our travellers and ourselves as they and
we ought to be treated.”94
This sense of paternalism is not surprising
considering Cook’s ties to local diplomatic pow-
ers: in 1869, when one of Cook’s camps was robbed,
the British consul in Beirut and the Turkish
governor of Jerusalem conducted a months-
long investigation to retrieve their belongings
and bring them to the British Foreign Office in
London.95 By the end of the nineteenth century,
Cook’s representative in Palestine also served as
the American vice-consul.96 Indeed, much of the
power and fame of Cook’s Tours came from the
support of the Empire; in return, Cook served the
colonial powers with great loyalty. In 1882, Cook
escorted a campaign to Egypt that resulted in the
British occupation of the country; after the Battle
of Tel el-Kebir, Cook evacuated wounded British
93
Hunter, The Thomas
Cook Archive for the
Study of Tourism, 159
94
Kark, From Pilgrimage
to Budding, 164
95
Ibid, 163
Fig 19: The camp set up by Cook for the state of Wilhelm II of
96
Germany in 1898
Cohen-Hattab and
Shoval, Tourism,
Religion and Pilgrimage
in Jerusalem, 28
soldiers; and in 1884, the British government
97
employed Cook to transport supplies to their sol-
Hunter, The Thomas
Cook Archive for the diers in Sudan.97 Cook was also in charge of the
Study of Tourism, 163
Royal Tours of the Prince of Wales (1862), Prince
98
Kark, From Pilgrimage George (1882) and the renowned visit of Kaiser
to Budding, 162
Wilhelm II of Germany (1898).98
99
Cook, Thomas,
“Persona” in Cook’s
However, the social and political elites were
Excursionist (November not his target audience; these trips were merely
25, 1867)
tools to disseminate his message and advance
100
Hunter, The Thomas
Cook Archive for the
his desire to democratise travel, as well as cater
Study of Tourism, 161 to the middle-class desire for self-improvement
101
Cook, Thomas, through leisure. He even encouraged women to
Cook’s Tourists’
Handbook for Palestine
travel, arguing that with “their energy, bravery,
and Syria (London: T. and endurance of toil […] they are fully equal to
Cook & Son, 1886)
those of the opposite sex […] they push their way
102
Cook, Cook’s
Tourists’ Handbook, iii
through all difficulty and acquire the perfection
of tourist character.”99 These lines were written in
Cook’s newsletter, The Excursionist (1851–1902) (later
the Traveller’s Gazette, 1902–1939), which promoted
Cook’s Tours by showcasing its development and
published articles on new destinations, trans-
portation fares, and testimonials from returning
travellers and Cook’s employees.100 In addition to
the newsletter, Cook created another publication:
Cook’s Handbook, that published periodically and
was to accompany Western travellers on their
trip to Palestine.
Cook’s Handbook included practical infor-
mation for travellers—preferred season, currency
exchange rates, dress codes, diet, camp life, and
so on—as well as detailed itineraries, maps in
various scales, and descriptions of the land’s
natural features, various religions and sects, and
local history, as well as addresses of post office,
physicians, foreign consulates, and bankers.101
The raison d’être of the guidebook, Cook explains,
is that it could be read “without difficulty, either
on horseback or in the dim light of the tent […]
that in any moment any information may be ascer-
tained.”102 Addressing a group that was literate
and well-versed in Evangelical theology, Cook
included not only practical information but also
Scriptural references for all the sites on his itin-
eraries.103 By combining the guidebook with the

90 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 91

 103
Bosworth, Edmund,
“The Land of Palestine
in the Late Ottoman
Bible, Cook assumes authority over all the didac- Period as Mirrored in
of biblical meaning, appeared on Cook’s Tours as
tic content (both spiritual and practical) of the Western Guide Books”, anchors of memory. As excavations and explora-
Bulletin (British Society
traveller’s visit—and removes everything else as for Middle Eastern tions took place, the number of sites was ever-ex-
Studies) 13, no. 1
excess. As Cook himself writes in the introduc- (1986): 36–44, in Polley,
panding, growing in scale, typology, and spread.
tion, the volume - Gabriel, “‘Palestine is Cook had first access to these newly-discovered
Thus Brought Home
to England’: The holy sites, thanks to his close work with the PEF in
Representation of
is intended as a handbook for Tourists; it does not, there- Palestine in British
providing the logistical needs for their missions;
fore, attempt to give exhaustive information or to unravel Travel Literature, thus, he could take advantage of their cartographic
1840–1914” (PhD diss.,
the multitudinous threads of controversy woven around University of Exeter, and archaeological knowledge of the region for his
March 2020), 213
nearly every sacred site […] It points out all that is to be own enterprise.109 This allowed Cook to constantly
104
seen, and endeavours to provide concise information upon Cook, Cook’s expand and update his itineraries with new local-
Tourists’ Handbook, iii
all subjects in which the Tourist [sic] may find interest. ities, thus directly exploiting new discoveries for
105
Such as John
104
Murray’s A Handbook for
economic gain.110 At the same time, the imme-
Cook openly admits to reducing the complexity of Travellers in Syria and diate inclusion of these sites in Cook’s itineraries
Palestine (1858) and Karl
the land for the benefit of the tourist. Controlling Baedeker’s Palestine and newsletters validated and promoted the work
and Syria: Handbook for
both the route and his clients’ knowledge, Cook Travellers (1898)
of the PEF back in the West.111 This symbiotic rela-
projected a single narrative and frames a view 106
tionship tied archaeology, heritage, and tourism
Cook, Cook’s
over the land as the only truth. When faced with Tourists’ Handbook, 16 into one self-perpetuating machine: from survey
ambiguous sights or sites, the tourist could confer 107
The guide tells of
to excavation, from designation to ritualisation
with the authority of the European guidebook (of the locals who come to and, finally, to valorisation.112
entertain the tourists:
which Cook’s was only the first), where they could “the villagers from A prevailing mode of valorisation is the
modern Jericho come
be reassured with familiar facts and figures.105 up in a body for the
transmission of information, that, along with the
The guidebook also included detailed itin- purpose of performing rise of the leisure society, engineered the cultural
dances accompanied by
eraries that are worth exploring. Day 2 on Cook’s songs; the steps of these monster that is mass tourism.113 Tour guides,
dancers are a few; and
“Ten Days’ Tour in Judea” is described as such: the beauty of the dance,
local agents, communication specialists, and
“Jerusalem to Mar Saba, Riding to Rachel’s Tomb, such as it is, consists in travel coordinators join hands to expand the value
the graceful swaying of
Solomon’s Pools, over the hills of the Wilderness the body … the music generated by a historic monument by mediating
to which the dance is
performed consists in
its content (or reducing it to the lowest common Fig 21: A group of Cook’s Tours leaving the Encampment in Jerusalem’s outskirts
⁠ (1877)
clapping of hands.” — denominator) to a larger audience.114 This practice
Cook, Cook’s Tourists’
Handbook, 232 was used by Cook in both the written and spo-
108
Ibid
ken guides, who communicate their knowledge this wonderful land is full of sacred and historic Sophia. deciphering with its own eyes, allowing mean-
109
of their land to their travellers. When crossing a interest,” as every item seen from the saddle, and 117
Ibid, log from ing to escape through a sieve of hollow words.”119
Cobbing, Thomas Tuesday, March 20, 1888
Cook and the Palestine valley south of Jerusalem, the guidebook reads: every contemporary landmark is mediated and Cook’s itineraries are then a careful construction
Exploration Fund, 185 118
“[we] pass through the famed Vale of Elah, where enhanced for their familiar knowledge. Thus it Barnsley, “Diary of of a stational route of historic monuments that
Our Tour in the East”,
110
Ibid, 191 the Philistines, with Goliath, defined the armies becomes ‘easy to imagine’, or, to put it in terms log from Sunday, April project Western-centric envelope over the en-
1, 1888
111
New discoveries of Israel, and where David gained his final victory of collective memory, support recollection, by tirety of Palestine in order to frame the view of
appeared in Cook’s 119
Excursionists, helping
of the giant. Process by Bethshemes to Gath and allowing the past to literally resurface at its place Choay, The his travellers and market his attraction as a “tour
Invention of the Historic
both to publicise the camp there.”115 This natural element thus gains of origin. This travelogue reveals the depth and Monument, 147 back in time to Bible Lands.” By preventing them
success of the PEF in lo-
Fig 20: Cook’s office near the Jaffa Gate, ca. 1903 cating new biblical sites a patrimonial value thanks to the authority of breadth of Cook’s pedagogy, which extended to 120
Cook, Cook’s from engaging in a free-flowing interaction with
and to raise curiosity
amongst potential cli-
the guidebook. In this process of valorisation, it every aspect of the journey. The intensity of sites Tourists’ Handbook, 36 the land or encountering a monument in an un-
[sic] of Judea […] to the Dead Sea, giving some ents. — Cobbing, Thomas becomes a point of recollection within a constel- can be seen from a diary entry written ten days 121
In addition to Cook’s mediated way, Cook is able to conceal its reality
Cook and the Palestine Tours, the inner court
time to bath, and then ride across the plain to the Exploration Fund, 185 lation of attractions. after the visit to the Valley of Elah: of the Jaffa Gate housed and thus expand his profits.
site of Jericho and encamp near the Fountain of 112
Cohen-Hattab
The Valley of Elah is also mentioned in an the agencies of Tadras,
Clark, and Nasir &
Elisha at foot of the Mountain of Temptation.”106 and Shoval, Tourism, unpublished travelogue written by mother and We came to a large square building which contains a rock Farajalla, each accom- It is true that in the eyes of tourists Jerusalem
Religion and Pilgrimage
Aside from the distances (measured in hours on in Jerusalem, 7 daughter Sophie and Emmaline Barnsley, who on which it is said that Jesus and His disciples ate before was reduced to an archipelago of valorised mon-
the saddle), there is no mention of the reality of 113
Choay, The
undertook Cook’s Eastern tour from England in and after the Resurrection. Then we visited a very old uments. However, for the locals, these islands
the land or its inhabitants; locals are only men- Invention of the Historic 1888.116 Rather than read from the written guide, church in which it is said that our Lord preached his first of heritage were consumable products floating
Monument, 142
tioned briefly in regards to entertainment, when the women cite the spoken descriptions offered sermon. Then Joseph’s workshop and Mary’s well, and as within a real city, where streams of a modernised
114
Choay, The
women are described as performing a beautiful Invention of the Historic
to them by their guides, Mr. Howard and Mr. it is the only water supply in the town it is quite possible metropolis were gaining strength. Cook and
dance that “consists of the graceful swaying of Monument, 143 Bernard: that she drew water from it.118 his counterparts worked hard to hide this, by
the body” in front of the travellers.107 Cook warns 115
Cook, Cook’s engulfing the tour with Orientalist hues when-
Tourists’ Handbook, 36
his travellers that while these dancers are around, We halted for lunch at the brook from which David select- There is no clearer way of valorising the Holy ever biblical sites were not readily available for
116
“travellers will do well to keep a sharp eye upon Barnsley, Sophie and ed the pebble with which to kill the giant Goliath. Then as Land and its historic monuments than Cook’s id- consumption. Cook’s tours often ended with a
Barnsley, Emmaline,
any loose property in their tents” as honesty is a “Diary of Our Tour in the we looked down the narrow valley it was easy to imagine iosyncratic itineraries, which naturalised natural journey back to the city of Jaffa, where travellers
East”, 1888, generously
rare trait in modern Jericho.108 given to the author by
the hills on either side covered with fighting men, Philis- elements and archaeological sites as the back- could stay, according to Cook’s handbook, “at
What it does describe extensively, however, Martin Wainwright and tines on one side and Israel on the other […] We are now drops of the tourists’ shared past. Since every bit the Jerusalem Hotel, delightfully situated on the
Oliver Wainwright, the
are historic monuments. Hundreds of sites, ranging great-grandson and well in the midst of the mountains of Judea and as we plod of the land is communicated through narrative eminence overlooking the orange groves and the
great-great-grandson of
from monumental structures to discarded stones, along the Bible seems no longer an old tale but a reality.117 commentary, one can argue that Cook’s guides sea, till the arrival of the steamer.”120 Indeed, this
from large natural elements to lone shrubs, practice Choay’s valorisation by “cultivat[ing] the exotic ending to the trip shows how, from arrival
which had gone through a process of designation Indeed, for Sophia and Emmeline, “Every bit of public’s passivity, discouraging it from looking or to departure, the tourists’ itinerary was designed

92 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 93


Fig 22: Jerusalem railways station, inaugurated in 1892
to hide away everything that could obstruct the
process of recollection.
However, as the year 1900 approached, this reality
could no longer be hidden. Jerusalem’s economy
benefited tremendously from the capital brought
by the religious industry, and the city was grow-
ing to an unprecedented scale. By the end of the
nineteenth century, the area surrounding the
Jaffa Gate became a local “central station” for
pilgrim-tourists, where carriages arriving from
the port of Jaffa could discharge their riders at
the junction of the Old City and the new, where
trade, commerce, and transportation was cen-
tred. From Jaffa Gate grew the new Jaffa Road,
where a plethora of hotels, restaurants, and
tour agencies121 developed along the city’s only
pedestrian sidewalk.122 In 1867, Jaffa Road was
the first street to be paved in the city, leading to
improved transportation to and from the port of
Fig 23: Jaffa Road (1907–1914). Signs read on left side of street: “G.
Krikorian Photographie” and “P.A. Hallac & Co”. On right side of
street: “G. Raad Photographie” and “Phot. Savvides”
Jaffa, causing a rise in habitation and property
speculation outside the walls.123 In 1870, the offi-
cial boundaries of the city extended beyond the
Old City to include European compounds and
independent Jewish neighbourhoods that had
been sprawling since the 1858 Land Code. In 1896,
municipal, judiciary, and military offices followed
94
modating different
crowds. — Kark, From
Pilgrimage to Budding,
167 suit, relocating from within the Old City to Jaffa
122
Kark and Oren-
Street.124 In the following years, senior residents’
Nordheim, Jerusalem homes, orphanages, banks, schools, post offices,
and Its Environs, 77
and entertainment facilities formed a secular
123
Ibid, 90
cluster outside the Old City gates.125
124
Lemire, Jerusalem This civic character was further developed
1900, 4
by the levying of taxes, the instalment of a police
125
Kark and Oren-
Nordheim, Jerusalem
force, the layout of parks and water fountains,
and Its Environs, 81 and the supervision of urban planning and
126
Ibid, 35 building regulations.126 A population register of
127
Lemire, Jerusalem
the city’s residents was undertaken, depicting
1900, 4–5 a multicultural mix whose urban identity was
128
Ibid, 2 gaining visibility and legitimacy. In 1907, an
129
Storrs, Ronald, The
Ottoman clock tower was erected on top of the
Memoirs of Sir Ronald Jaffa Gate—now the heart of the city—displaying
Storrs (New York: G.P.
Putnam’s Sons, 1937), universal scientific time shared by the “fellow cit-
309
izens” of Jerusalem.127 This was an era of relative
130
Cook, Cook’s equilibrium within the city; as Vincent Lemire
Tourists’ Handbook, 112
writes, there was “a measure of harmony among
131
Urry, John and ​
Larsen, Jonas, The
its inhabitants, a sort of urbanity that linked the
Tourist Gaze 3.0​ different segments of the population.”128 Despite
(London: Sage, 2011).
multiple factors—the determination of the PEF,
132
Ibid, 4
the ‘soft colonialism’ of the religious and diplo-
133
Ibid, 18 matic bodies, and the arrival of mass-tourism—a
relative ambiguity remained across the city’s
urban space, where the municipality’s main con-
cerns still revolved around epidemics, railways,
and beggars—not the city’s heritage.129 Fig 24: Spiridon’s tourist map from the 1930s
But this modern city was not what tourists
expected. As Cook writes himself in the handbook,
134
“Most travellers have a feeling of disappointment In other words, Jerusalem could not live up to Ibid, 4 the complexity of the city cannot be understood
on first seeing Jerusalem.”130 Indeed, the visitors its image in the West. Constructed of signs, this 135
Ibid, 17 by the touristic gaze: as we shall see, when some-
to Jerusalem at the end of the nineteenth century image is a collage of collective memories that find 136
Ibid,143, (italics in
thing interrupts the image, the semiotic struc-
were tourists, a term worth elaborating on in order their material form in the city’s various signifi- the original) ture collapses.
to understand the reaction of Western travellers ers: its ancient walls, Oriental elements (such as 137
Volney, Constantin- “In a word, we can barely recognise Jeru-
François, Voyage en Syrie
to the city. In The Tourist Gaze, John Urry and Jonas indigenous characters, camels, or palm trees), or et en Égypte (1783–1785)
salem”, wrote Constantin François de Chasse-
Larsen describe the particular way in which tour- the dome of the Holy Sepulchre. These signifiers (Paris: Volland & bœuf in 1784.137 He saw an Oriental city which
Desenne, 1787), in
ists observe the world. Tourists, they explain, are are refined by tourism professionals who produce, Lemire, Jerusalem 1900, was far from the Jerusalem he expected, one of
45
subjects who consume a pleasurable experience valorise, and disseminate them within society ancient beauty and history. While tourism had
138
that differs from their daily life. They often behold through posters, guidebooks, and travelogues for Edward Said defines yet to be institutionalised when he wrote those
Orientalism “as a
the world through a lens that is socially framed mass consumption.134 Western style for dom- lines at the end of the eighteenth century, this
inating, restructuring,
by class, gender, education, culture, and religion; Since Jerusalem’s tourist industry generates and having authority
sentiment is emblematic of the touristic gaze
their vision is filtered through memories and surplus by producing valorised heritage rather over the Orient.” — Said, of him and his fellow travellers who felt it their
Orientalism, 2
ideologies in a way that does not reflect an actual than goods, its value is very much dependent duty to report on the shortcomings of Palestine.
reality.131 Urry and Larsen argue that the tourist on the faculty of sight. The possibility of seeing The travelogues cited below, as well as dozens
gaze is not individually determined, but is con- ancient Jerusalem became the prime objective of others, are far from impartial representations
structed and directed through a cognitive work of Thomas Cook & Sons; it is what every pil- of the East, and should be understood within
of comparison, classification, and connection; it grim-tourist desired. But “we do not literally ‘see’ the discourse on Orientalism.138 Travel writings
is heavily based on visual and textual represen- things”, Urry and Larsen remind us: as tourists, from nineteenth-century Palestine should thus
tation, which foster great anticipation from the we only see objects as signifiers of something else.135 be studied for their agency in shaping Jerusalem.
tourist’s destination.132 In other words, it is the legibility of the signifier They directly contributed to its appropriation
The gazer and the gazee are in a relationship that dictates the satisfaction of the touristic gaze. and exclusion by being complicit in colonialist
of constant tension that is negotiated by travel This is problematic, of course, because when tour- discourse.139 As such, travelogues reveal the con-
guides, heritage experts, and local religious ists see the city, they automatically complete an nection between travel, collective memory, impe-
authorities.133 This is all the more true in the image according to the patterns of life necessary rialism, valorisation, and capitalism.
case of Jerusalem, where the city is inevitably for their own recollection, while “various kinds The first phase of travellers’ response
compared to its representations in biblical liter- of social experiences are in effect ignored or trivi- includes a feeling of disappointment in reac-
ature and religious imagery spanning millennia alised, such as the relations of war, exploitation, tion to the natural scenery. “Those who describe
and disseminated through Sunday school and hunger, disease, the law and so on, which cannot Palestine as beautiful”, wrote one traveller in
church sermons, museum frescoes and postcards. be seen as such”, write Urry and Larsen.136 Indeed, 1875, “must have either a very inaccurate notion
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 95
 Century American Art
and Culture​ (Princeton:
Princeton University
first to use electric lighting, and the Fast Hotel Press, 1996), 51 approach Jerusalem with reverence and awe, and
had running water before any private home 146
Warburton, Eliot​, The
are overwhelmed with the memories of the stu-
did.151 This improvement of facilities also meant Crescent and the Cross: pendous events which here took place; but we are
Romance and Realities of
that Jerusalem’s appeal to tourists was eroded Eastern Travel (London: pained and shocked by the bare superstition and
Maclaren, 1844),
by the success of the industry itself; luxury pri- 245–246
empty formalism which meet us everywhere.”159
vately-owned hotels and Western cafés further 147
William Prime writes of his first encounter with
Tristram, Henry
distanced the city from its image as a distant Baker​, The land of Israel: Jerusalem:
a journal of travels in
dream-land of the past, and the improvement of Palestine, Undertaken
infrastructure (such as the opening of the Jaffa- with Special Reference I had thought of that moment for years, in waking and in
to its Physical Character ​
Jerusalem railways in 1892 and the improvement (London: Society for sleeping dreams. [...] I stood in the road, my hand on my
Promoting Christian
of roads) was seen as no less than a desecration of Knowledge, 1865), 224
horse’s neck, and with my dim eyes sought to trace the
the terrain. A British author commented: 148
outlines of the holy places which I had long before fixed in
Davis, The Landscape
of Belief, 44 my mind. but the fast-flowing tears forbade my succeed-
The first feeling that comes to us as we stand on the plat- 149
Melville, Herman, ​
ing. The more I gazed, the more I could not see.160
form at the depot in Jaffa and hear the bell ring and the Journal of a Visit to
Europe and the Levant,
voice of the conductor shouting, “All abroad for Jerusalem,” October 11 1856 – May The gaze of Warburton, Schaff and Prime are con-
6, 1857, ed. Howard C.
is that a great sacrilege has been committed in the very Horsford (Princeton:
flicted between constructed memories and phys-
fact of building a railroad in the Holy Land.152 Princeton University ical reality. Their vision was diffused between
Press, 1995), 137, quoted
in Davis, The Landscape the array of signs so that, to them, Jerusalem was
of Belief, 50
In the same year, a reporter in the popular Amer- illegible. While they rectified their journeys, like
150
ican magazine Scribner wrote that sacrilege “is the Russell, Andrew, Twain, by “writing-out” their experience, fellow
Fig 25: Covers of nineteenth-century travelogues to Palestine Glimpses of Eastern
introduction of a railroad into Palestine, with the Cities Past and Present: Westerns opted for another solution. “The curse
Lectures Delivered on
139
sound of whistle and rushing train among the old Sunday Evenings in
that hangs over Palestine is the curse of unjust
Youngs, Tim, The
of what constitutes beauty of scenery, or must Cambridge Introduction book by an American author, propelling other and quiet hills of Judea.”153 Tourists wanted the Leslie Parish Churches and unwise government”161, wrote Conder in
(London: James Nisbet &
have viewed the country through a highly to Travel Writing travellers to share similar reactions.145 Contrast- comfort and security of the train; but they did not Co., 1890), 8 1891, blaming the Ottomans for Jerusalem’s con-
(Cambridge: Cambridge
coloured medium.”140 Indeed, the gaze of these University Press, 2011), ing his imagination with reality, Elliot Warbur- want to see or hear it amongst the mythical hills of 151
Cohen-Hattab
dition. After all, Jerusalem was their patrimony:
9, in Polley, “‘Palestine
travellers over Palestine was framed by their is Thus Brought Home to ton writes: their imagined holy land. and Shoval, Tourism, “Its customs, sights, sounds and localities were
Religion and Pilgrimage
own cultural and aesthetic expectations—heav- England’”, 22 These sentiments grew stronger upon arriv- in Jerusalem, 33 those I lived among in that early time, as shown
140
ily influenced by Western imagery spanning Stanley, Arthur So long the object of eager hope and busy imagination, it ing in Jerusalem itself. The newer construction 152
Miller, Daniel
to me by pictures, explained by word, and funded
Penrhyn, Sinai and
Renaissance to Romanticism—which could not Palestine in Connection stood before me at length in actual reality [...] A bril- outside the walls was a “pitiful and banal heap”, Long, Wanderings in as part of my undying property.”162 As such, the
Bible Lands: notes of
find satisfaction in mid-nineteenth-century with Their History liant and chequered sunshine has something mournful a “horrible new suburb with its smoking factory travel in Italy, Greece, touristic gaze was both passive and active, ready
(London: John Murray,
Asia-Minor, Egypt,
Jerusalem, where sanctity was not coupled with 1868), 213 in it, when all that it shines upon is utterly desolate and chimneys” that was hiding “the real Jerusalem, Nubia, Ethiopia, Cush,
to showcase control, ownership, and agency in
heroic scenery and an abundance of monuments. 141
Obenzinger, Hilton, ​ dreary.146 the Jerusalem that we have seen of old in pictures and Palestine (Mount order to reshape Jerusalem into a legible city for
Morris: The Brethren’s
Perhaps the most prolific critic of the Holy Land American Palestine: and prints.”154 It is doubtful that there were any Publishing Company, those arriving at its gates.
Melville, Twain, and
1894), quoted in Nassar,
during those decades was Mark Twain. Traveling the Holy Land Mania​ The sense of desolation was shared by many trav- smoking chimneys around the Old City; rather, Issam, “In Their Image:
(Princeton: Princeton
on board America’s first organised tourist excur- University Press, 1999), ellers, who addressed the land’s natural features, what they saw was probably more reminiscent of Jerusalem in Nineteenth-

sion, the USS steamship Quaker City, Twain arrived 161–162, 165 in particular its state of productivity—or lack industrialised Europe than the city known from
Century English Travel
Narratives”, Jerusalem ACT IV:
in Palestine in 1867 with a group of one hundred 142
Twain writes: “Of thereof. It was described as a “barren desert, [once religious art. As the Irish Minister Josias Leslie Quarterly 19 (Institute
for Palestine Studies,
THE COLONISER
all the lands there are
fifty fellow Americans.141 Twain was so disap- for dismal scenery, I a] well-watered plain [now reduced to] devasta- Porter wrote, “the City of the Great King, the Holy October 2003): 16 Aesthetic, religious, and imperialist claims
pointed by the “hopeless, dreary, heart-broken think Palestine must tion”147, as nothing “but a barren, hard, despon- City of the Crusaders, the picturesque City of the 153
Merrill, Selah, “The merged over Jerusalem in the twentieth century.
be the prince. The hills
Jaffa and Jerusalem
land”142 that he decided to warn future travellers are barren, they are dent wasteland.”148 Herman Melville described it Saracens and Turks, is at the present time almost Railway”, Scribner’s
Leaning on the superiority of Western culture and
dull of color, they are
about the reality of Palestine by writing an entire unpicturesque in shape. as a land “full of old cheese [and] bones of rocks [...] covered and concealed by the tasteless structures Magazine 13, no. 3 value, it was widely expected that whoever inher-
(March 1893): 290
book about his experience: The valleys are unsightly a land of ruins, paralysed and forsaken [...] lying in of modern traders and ambitious foreign devo- ited Jerusalem from the Ottomans “would finally
deserts fringed with a 154
Loti, Jérusalem,
feeble vegetation that dust and ashes”, its many ”hills and valleys, stony, tees.”155 Even Cook’s own offices were disturbing, 10, quoted in Lemire,
put Jerusalem right [and] cleanse the city of the
has an expression about
Palestine is desolate and unlovely. And why should it be it of being sorrowful and rugged, desolate, neglected, silent, and lifeless, as Hanna Harris wrote: “The balcony in the sketch Jerusalem 1900, 41 (my cultural pollution that has dimmed its spiritual
italics)
otherwise? Can the curse of the Deity beautify a land? despondent. The Dead succeed one another, as though the anger of God [...] is the American Consulate, and Cook’s Offices brilliance.”163 These aspirations became possible
Sea and the Sea of Galilee 155
Porter, Josias Leslie,
Palestine is no more of this work-day world. It is sacred to sleep in the midst of a rested on this land, once flowing with milk and are just below; and very strange is it to the visitor Jerusalem, Bethany and
when the British Mandate began its occupation of
vast stretch of hill and
poetry and tradition—it is dream-land.143 plain wherein the eye honey.” To put it more succinctly, it was “a caked, whose mind is full of images of ancient and scrip- Bethlehem (Jerusalem: Palestine I in December 1917, following the inva-
Ariel Publishing House,
rests upon no pleas- depopulated hell”.149 tural association, to have at almost every turn 1886), xxi–xxii, quoted sion of Jerusalem by the British General Edmund
ant tint, no striking
in Polley, “‘Palestine is
In his preface, he suggests that it is with innocent object, no soft picture The general agreement about Palestine’s reminders such as these of modern life.”156 Thus Brought Home to
Allenby and the subsequent withdrawal of the
dreaming in a purple
eyes that travellers must view the land, “instead haze or mottled with the degraded physical condition was gradually trans- It is clear that the Jerusalem of memory did England’”, 289 Ottoman forces.164 This was the first time, since
of the eyes of those who traveled [sic] in those shadows of the clouds. formed as the turn of the twentieth century drew not make itself available to the tourist. Many of 156
Harris, Pictures of the Crusade’s loss of Jerusalem in 1187 AD, that
Every outline is harsh,
the East, 28
countries before him.”144 Surely, Twain’s Innocents every feature is distinct. near. As mass tourism shaped local infrastruc- them had held a mental picture of the place since the city was ruled by a Christian power, and the
It is a hopeless, dreary, 157
Abroad was far from innocent: his gaze was framed heart-broken land.” ture, complaints of “the filthy and uncomfort- early childhood, aligning Palestine with a sense Obenzinger, Hilton, British saw it as their duty to “restore Jerusalem
American Palestine:
within a particular touristic expectation. Twain — Twain, Mark, The able nature of the accommodation, the want of of home.157 The Irish traveller Eliot Warburton Melville, Twain, and and Palestine to their place among the nations.”165
Innocents Abroad or the
the Holy Land Mania.
did not see what was in front of his eyes, but a New Pilgrim’s Progress pure water, the disagreeable smells constantly wrote that while his “first impressions of child- (Princeton: Princeton
The privilege of ‘cleansing’ Jerusalem of its
(original publication,
vision filtered through predetermined memories Harford: American to be encountered” were heard less and less.150 hood are connected with that scenery”, the real- University Press, 1999), accumulated ‘filth’ was awarded to Sir Ronald
42–43
and shared ideologies. This bias notwithstanding, Publishing Company, Unsurprisingly, technological advancement first ity “is unlike anything else on earth—so blank Storrs, the first British governor of Jerusalem.166
1869), 395–396 158
Warburton, The
Twain’s travelogue sold over 67,000 copies in its 143
arrived to the city via the hospitality industry: to the eye, yet so full of meaning to the heart.”158 crescent and the cross,
Storrs was struck by the beauty of the city and its
Twain, The Innocents
first year and became the most widely-read travel Abroad, 395–396 the pilgrim hostel of Notre Dame was the city’s The Swiss theologian Phillip Schaff wrote, “We 279 geography, which he described as “unparalleled
159
144
Ibid, preface. Schaff, Through Bible
Lands, 267
96 145
Davis, John, ​The TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR—
160
Prime, Tent Life in
The Innocents Abroad 97
Landscape of Belief:
Encountering the Holy the Holy Land, 50 (my
Land in Nineteenth-
 168
After being
appointed the military
governor of Jerusalem,
sion in the Judean Hills prevented by extensive Storrs said: “I possessed
afforestation, and terracing encouraged in order no military competence
whatever, and very little
to improve the land’s fertility, making sure “the administrative experi-
ence, but I did have an
land can be made really productive.”180 The second inside knowledge (with
part of his plan—the project of legibility—was examples positive and
negative) of the pro-
more complicated: it did not have a blueprint, but cessed of Government
and the interactions of
was made up of a variety of plans, projects, and Oriental communities;
legislation drafted over several decades by prom- combines with a deep
enthusiasm for the task,
inent architects and planners. In the context of and a wild exhilaration
at the chance which had
this paper—the discussion on collective memory, been put into my hand.”
legibility of its urban signifiers, and the valorisa- Storrs, The Memoirs of
Sir Ronald Storrs, 300
tion of Jerusalem as a historic monument—I have
169
While over 500
chosen to highlight the plans (both realised and requests were made in
unrealised) that treated Jerusalem as a project of the first two years, very
few were approved.
landscape design. I position this hypothesis within
170
Storrs, The Memoirs
the theoretical framework put forth by Denie of Sir Ronald Storrs, 326
Cosgrove, Gary Fields, and W.J.T. Mitchell who 171
Ashbee, Charles
argue not only that landscape is man-made, but Robert, ​A Palestine
Notebook, 1918–1923
(​Garden City, N.Y:
Doubleday, 1923), 57
Fig 28: The Pro-Jerusalem Society
172
Storrs, The Memoirs
of Sir Ronald Storrs, 327
173
Preface by Ronald Palestine Notebook, Ashbee noted that it is urgent
Storrs in Ashbee, C.
R. (Charles Robert), to plant trees for shade;181 for Storrs, Jerusalem
Jerusalem, 1918–1920,
being the records of the
was “over-churched” by the immense construc-
pro-Jerusalem council tion of religious institutions and shrines; it was
during the period of
the British military the outdoors, rather, that was perceived as more
administration (London:
Murray, 1921), v
authentic, holy, and true to Jerusalem’s past.182 He
Fig 26: Jerusalem from the south (American Colony Photographers, 1898–1907)
174
favoured the Garden of Gethsemane, a plot of land
Pro-Jerusalem
Society, Council, that had been enclosed by the Latin Church in
italics) Jerusalem 1920–1924,
in the world, with an appeal to the imagination Storrs appointed the Arts and Crafts advocate and 4, quoted in Wharton,
the 1870s, believed to be the scriptural site where
161
that not Rome, not even Athens, could rival.”167 Conder, Claude William Morris follower C. R. Ashbee as director. Jerusalem Remade, Christ agonised before his arrest. For Storrs, “of all
Reignier, “Jewish 53–54
His sentiments for the city were not dissimilar Colonies in Palestine”, Like Storrs, Ashbee believed that the urgency of the places hallowed by the Passion of Christ none
175
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Report to the
to those of Palestine’s late-nineteenth-century their mission was a matter of not only archae- Administration from
is more beautiful, few so authentic, as the Garden
Magazine 149, no.
tourists, and he admittedly had little experience 908 (1891), in Polley, ology or preservation but of beauty: “Everything August 1918, in Ashbee, of Gethsemane.”183 Storrs hoped to return the
‘Palestine is Thus A Palestine notebook, 79
for the task at hand.168 One of his first actions as Brought Home to that we associate with our sense of beauty is alike garden to its state during the days of Christ, but
176
England,’ 243 Ashbee, A Palestine
military governor was to put an end to all con- in danger: Landscape, the unities of streets and Notebook, 9
compromised by deciding to appeal to the Pope
162
struction in Jerusalem: within four months of his Warren, Henry sites, the embodied vision of the men that set the 177
against the decision of the Custodia Terra Sancta
White, Sights and “One reads back
appointment, he released a statement announc- Insights; or, Knowledge great whole together [...] all these things have to to Suleiman the (the Franciscan Order’s Custody of the Holy Land)
by Travel (New York: Magnificent, to Saladin,
ing that “No person shall demolish, erect, alter be considered practically.”174 Fig 27: Allenby, Storrs, and Ashbee on Temple Mount
to Al Mamoun, to
to build structures in the garden. He believed, like
Nelson and Phillips,
or repair” any structure within 2,500 metres of 1874), 243, quoted in When Ashbee arrived in Jerusalem, it was Herod, to Nehemia, to many other Protestants who preferred the open
Obenzinger, American Solomon. Each gave
the Damascus Gate of the Old City, without his Palestine, 43 in a desperate state: “It is difficult to imagine a that it is an ideology, a Western construct, and her something, and the Garden Tomb over the congested Holy Sepulchre,
types in her streets are
written permission.169 Cars were to be left out of 163 sharper contrast than between the Jerusalem of that power is structured on imagined relation- wonderful. And what
that open spaces are much more holy, and that
Wharton, Annabel,
Judea, and when asked about the possibility of a “Jerusalem Remade”, man’s imagination […] and the actual Jerusalem ships with the natural world. For clarity, I have will this strong Western while cities have changed, perhaps the moun-
in Modernism and administration mean?
tram to run between Bethlehem and the Mount the Middle East, eds. left us by the Turk.”175 He lamented his responsi- grouped these plans according to three mech- Fusion of races? There tains and valleys have stayed the same—since the
Isenstadt, Sandy is no other logical
of Olives, he wrote that “the first rail section bility in shaping this “city of the mind”,176 evok- anisms of landscape design: the imposition of a way out.”— Ashbee, A
time of not only Christ, but creation itself.
and Rizvi, Kishwar
would be laid over the dead body of the military (Seattle: University ing with despair its great builders of the past, strong sense of the natural, the use of stone as a Palestine Notebook, 9 It is within this spirit that Storrs asked
of Washington Press,
governor.”170 2008), 42 and contemplating his abundance of freedom unifying building material, and the construction 178
Ibid, 19 Patrick Geddes to turn Jerusalem into “the most
As much as Storrs wanted to restore 164 and endless possibilities.177 For him, there was of Jerusalem into a familiar image by removing 179
“The two main things
extensive Sacred Park in the world.”184A Scottish
Wharton, “Jerusalem
Jerusalem to its biblical past, he was advised that Remade,” 41 no logic in the condition in which “the stranger all visual obstructions. It is through the inter- which in Palestine it town-planner and sociologist, Geddes first arrived
ought to be doing and for
“there are many problems in economics, hygiene, 165
Northcliff greet- had become a native, the pilgrim the resident.”178 locking of these three elements that Jerusalem which it will ultimately in Palestine in 1919 following a previous position
ing the governor of be judged: the life and
town planning, social reconstruction, to which But this was indeed the case, and with the Pro- was irreversibly made into a place designed and quality of the peasantry,
with the colonial forces in India. Together with
Jerusalem at a joint
the sermon on the Mount and the teaching of meeting in London of Jerusalem Society, Ashbee intended to do well sustained for the touristic gaze. and the development Ashbee, Geddes’s ‘Jerusalem Park Plan’ (1921) pro-
the overseas Club and of historical and ar-
Jesus give us little clue.”171 He therefore entrusted Patriotic League. From with the city—and prevent others from doing ill. The first element of landscape design was chaeological research.” posed to plant a green belt around the Old City
The Times (London), — Ashbee, A Palestine
the project to an independent committee, The Within this framework, Jerusalem would become a strong sense of the natural. This has a twofold Notebook, 269
walls. This gesture would isolate the Old City from
December 30, 1920,
Pro-Jerusalem Society, composed of the city’s mayor quoted in Wharton, a project of two cities: a new metropolis to be intention: to make Jerusalem closer to its myth- 180
the New, setting it, “so to speak, in the centre of a
Jerusalem Remade, Kendall, Henry,
and the leaders of the Muslim, Jewish, Christian, 41–42 regulated and an ancient city to be made legi- ical image by beautifying it for the Western eye, Jerusalem: The City park, thus recognising the appeal it makes to the
Plan, Preservation and
and Armenian communities.172 This uncommon 166 ble.179 The first part was simple and well-known and to legitimise removal and demolition in the Development during >>>
world—a city of an idea—that needs as such to
Ibid, 42
union of civic and religious concerns was bound 167
to English improvers: hundreds of kilometres or name of parks and open spaces. This is something be protected.”185 The protective layer of the park
Storrs in a speech
together “by their common love for the Holy City”.173 to the overseas Club asphalt roads were to be constructed, soil ero- that both Ashbee and Storrs promoted. In his would not be designed with a special layout of
and Patriotic League
in London, The Times

98 (London), December
20, 1930, quoted in TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 99
Wharton, Jerusalem
Remade, 44
 the British Mandate
1918–1948 (London: Her
Majesty’s Stationery
“ornamental plantation”,186 but would instead Office, 1948), 3 barrels vaulting and pointed arches have preserved
attempt to recover the past: Jewish and ancient 181
Ashbee, A Palestine
through the centuries a hallowed and immemorial tradi-
Greco-Roman rock-tombs would be preserved as Notebook, 21 tion.192
“features” of the park, while the rest would be 182
Storrs, The Memoirs
of Sir Ronald Storrs, 315
discarded in order to return Jerusalem into its Stone was infused with divine qualities and ap-
183
natural, pre-Ottoman state. As Geddes wrote: Ibid, 315 proved as the only acceptable building material;
184
Geddes, Patrick, vaulting, arches, and other Oriental elements
Jerusalem Actual and
It would be an easy matter to remove this earth and Possible, a preliminary
were the preferred design strategies going for-
rubbish further downhill [...] in this way may be laid out report to the chief admin- ward. Storrs forbade the use of stucco, corrugated
istrator of Palestine and
and kept permanently open the early Biblical Jerusalem, of the Military Governor of iron, and wood, “materials [that] were and are
Jerusalem on Town plan-
which the present old city is but a later development.187 ning and Improvements,
inexcusable.”193 While this legislation was in-
file Z4/ 10.202 (1919), tended to project a Western memory of Jerusalem
18–19, Central Zionist
The park plan was an elaboration of the 1918 Archives, Jerusalem. on its landscape, it effectively displaced the city’s
Zoning Scheme by William McLean, which es- 185
Ashbee, Jerusalem
poor, whose tin homes had to be dismantled.194
tablished four zones: the Old City, which should 1918–1920, 12 As Eyal Weizman argues, this ‘petrification’ of
preserve its “Medieval aspect”; the park, which 186
Ibid, 24 the city (which expanded in 1936 to include the
should remain unbuilt; and two additional zones 187 Geddes, Jerusalem
entire municipal area) created an aesthetic that
designated with a specific character and height Actual and Possible, in allowed new neighbourhoods to be immediately
Wharton, Jerusalem
limit, “rendering them in harmony and in scale Remade, 51–52 accepted into Jerusalem’s holy landscape because
with the Old City.”188 Both the zoning and park 188
Kendall, Jerusalem:
their buildings (and later cladding) were made of
plans were intended to appeal not to the city’s The City Plan, 6 stone.195 As an autochthonous material, the stone
residents, those who live and work within the 189
Geddes, Jerusalem would serve future justifications of claims over
Actual and Possible,
complexity of the city itself, but to those seeing 18–19
the city, carrying a symbolic value for not only
it for the first time from afar. With the removal 190
British colonists but also Israel’s master planners
Ashbee, Jerusalem
of industry from its perimeter and the creation 1918–1920, 1 in 1967, who likewise claimed the stone to “stim-
of a green frame around its walls, the image of 191
Preface by Ronald
ulate other sensations embedded in our collective
Jerusalem would be ever-familiar to an arriving Storrs in Ashbee, memory, producing strong associations to the Fig 30: “Jerusalem Park System” by Patrick Geddes and C.R Ashbee (1920)
Jerusalem 1918–1920, v
Westerner. As Geddes himself wrote, “on the eco- ancient holy city of Jerusalem.”196
192
Storrs, The Memoirs
nomic gain to Jerusalem as a pilgrim and touris- of Sir Ronald Storrs, 326
However powerful the stone legislation view onto Jerusalem. This was not undertaken in 194
Before this legisla-
tion, construction in and
tic city by this operation I need not expatiate. It is 193
was, there were still major revisions to the image one plan or legislation, but as a series of surgical outside the old city took
Ibid
obvious that its attraction would be increased.”189 of Jerusalem that had to take place. The third interventions, recreational projects, and sketches place without municipal
administration (the
The design of harmony, as the zoning scheme and final element of the design is thus the con- contained in the personal notebooks of Ashbee city’s engineer was in
charge of approving
dictated, can also be seen as the imposition of an struction of a clear, unobstructed, and familiar and in the 1921 publication by the Pro-Jerusalem heavy construction),
order or, more precisely, a simplification of the urban Society. The latter begins by boasting of “clean- meaning that informal
structures of wood and
fabric. The second design element proposed by the ing the Citadel and clearing out of the city fosse”, corrugated iron could
be built by the city’s
Pro-Jerusalem Society was an attempt to unify which included the removal of “great masses of poor. — Kark and Oren-
the city into an undivided whole, an object that stone debris” and, of course, a mass of Ottoman Nordheim, Jerusalem
and Its Environs, 89
can be perceived (and possessed) as one. The Pro- refugees.197 In their camps, “there was much
195
Weizman, Eyal,
Jerusalem Society regarded “the old city as a unity sickness, the misery and squalor were pitiful, and Hollow Land (London and
in itself, confined within its wall circuit, domi- it took a long time before the relief officers were New York: Verso), 30

nated by its great castle with the five towers, and able to cope with the difficulty.”198 The society 196
Hashimshoni,
Avia, Schweid, Yoseph
intersected with its vaulted streets and arcades found a creative way to deal with both the mate- and Hashimshoni,
[…] it is this compactness or unity, so character- rial and human remains of the war: Zion, Municipality of
Jerusalem, Masterplan
istic of Jerusalem, that the Society itself has set to for the City of Jerusalem,
Fig 31: Ashbee commenting on the unsightly use of materials
and the risk of using anything but stone (1918)
19611 (1972), 8, quoted
preserve.”190 This romantic description couldn’t The Society then worked out a method by which the in Weizman, Hollow
be further from Jerusalem, which was dominated clearing and cleaning should be done by refugee labour, Land, 28

neither by a castle nor by towers, and whose and such of the refugees were able-bodied were utilised in, 197
Ashbee, Jerusalem
1918–1920, 1
streets contained a wide array of building mate- so to speak, tidying up their own house. Many hundreds of
198
rials, density variations, and domestic typologies. men, women, and children, organised in different working Ibid
For this unity to occur, stone was enlisted as the gangs, were thus used.199 199
Ibid
mediating agent between the image of the city
and its layers of varied construction.191 It was thus The violence embedded in this efficient ‘method’
decreed that any act of building or rebuilding had could not be overstated. The remainder of the
to be carried out in the local “Jerusalem Stone”. In publications maintain similar notions of clearing
his memoirs, Storrs explains his decision: and beautifying Jerusalem’s signifiers, of which
the Citadel was only one. The Ramparts Walk,
Jerusalem is literally a City built upon a rock. From that for example, was a fortified walking path on the
rock, cutting soft but drying hard, has for three thousand ancient walls, originally used for security. Under
years been quarried the clear white stone, weathering the new plan, it was to become a promenade: “the
Fig 29: A view inside the Old City between 1900–1914;
blue-grey or amber-yellow with Time, whose solid walls, wooden balconies projecting from the stone walls spinal cord on which is to be built the whole series
of parks, gardens, and open spaces of which the
new city will be composed.”200 For this project, the
Society opened disused guardhouses, removed
several feet of landfill, built steps, installed iron
handrails, and removed around thirty ‘encroach-
ments’ that were built by the city’s residents in
order to demarcate their domestic property.201 The
Ramparts Walk is a classic example of valorisa-
tion: it enhances the Old City’s appeal by creating
a quasi-historical attraction that engages with
the materiality of the ancient. While it is based on
the Ottoman walls, it was hailed by Ashbee as “the
largest, and perhaps the most perfect, Medieval
enceinte in existence.”202 Rising above the “wild

100 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 101

 200
Ibid, 14
201
Ibid, 2
informal layout”203 of pine trees and flowers of the
202
Green Belt, the Walk sold a biblical attraction that Ibid, 21

not only united the Old City in one perimeter, but 203
From the annotated
notebooks of C.R Ashbee,
allowed for an obstructed, dominating gaze on image no. 8, Archive
the sacred territory that it encloses.204 Centre, King’s College,
Cambridge, England.
Another substantial undertaking was the Courtesy of Nirit Shalev-
Khalifa, Yad Ben Zvi,
‘clearing-up’ of the old city gates. First, the soci- Jerusalem.
ety removed locals (such as a bath contractor or 204
The Ramparts Walks
dung-cake bakers) that appropriated St Stephen’s website in 2021 notes
that “the Ramparts
Gate, repaired the guard-house at Herod’s Gate, Walk is one of the most
and designed a new monumental scheme for rewarding activities in
terms of history, beauty
Damascus Gate.205 Jaffa Gate was to be completely and a greater sense of
the Old City as a whole.”
remodelled: the Ottoman Clock Tower—described
205
by Ashbee as ‘hideous’ and by the Pro-Jerusalem Ashbee, Jerusalem
1918–1920, Being the
Society as ‘unsightly’—was dismantled.206 A large Records of the Pro-
Jerusalem Council, 4
open space replaced the existing make-shift mar-
206
ket stalls, which would be cleared away, along Ibid, 23

with the shops that had been erected around the

gate for decades.207 In addition, parts of the wall
that had been breached over the years would be
rebuilt “again exactly as it was”, and a new flower
garden would be planted around the citadel.208

Fig 34: Jaffa Gate ca. 1910, with the clocktower visible, as well as other shops, stalls and
carriages bringing pilgrims from the Port of Jaffa

Fig 35: Detail from the notebooks of C.R. Ashbee for the perimiter of the Old City Walls (left)
View from the Rampart Walk in 2020 (right)

roofs. The entire scene is framed by generous 207

Fig 32: The Rampart walk ca. 1923 Source: American Colony
(Jerusalem), Photo Department
The idea of creating Jerusalem as a landscape is
evident not only from the projects and texts un-
dertaken by the Society, but also from the medi-
um used to devise these plans. The design of the
Jaffa Gate is presented as a juxtaposition in the
‘before-and-after’ style: above, we see a panoram-
ic photograph taken beneath the Jaffa Gate, show-
ing the situation at present. A cluster of houses of
various materials and roof covers are stacked on
the slopes that descend from the gate, where only
the edge of the wall is visible beneath the yet-to-
be demolished Ottoman Clocktower. The monu-
Fig 33: Above: “Modern encroachments that the Society is clearing”
Below: Key Plan of the Rampart Walk
mental tower of the citadel is not shown; it must
have been cropped out due to the photographer’s
format. Below, we see a hand-drawn rendering of
Ashbee’s proposal: the medieval walls are clearly
visible and intact, with the monumental tower of
the citadel rising on the right.209 On the far left
sprawls an Oriental-looking new city with domed
pine trees and luscious greenery; it is a projected
vision of a productive, well-ordered world where
old and new live together in harmony, encapsu-
lating a Western vision of the beauty, the ancient,
and the holy.
Below Ashbee’s rendering, the subtitle
reads: “The same [the view onto Jaffa Gate] as
suggested when the unsightly obstructions that hide
the wall line are cleared away.” Indeed, Ashbee’s
picturesque scene sees actions of displacement
and demolition as nothing but the clearing
of obstructions. As a case-study for Jerusalem at
large, the redesign of the Jaffa Gate reveals the
primacy of the distant view over the discomforts
Ibid of proximity; it encapsulates the sensibilities of
208
Ibid a landscape painter employed by the Pro-Jeru-
209 salem Society. Indeed, the particular gaze that
Ashbee, Jerusalem
1918–1920, Being the is associated with landscape painting is that of
Records of the Pro-
Jerusalem Council, possession and authority; it is a form of control
figures 44 + 45 that positions the external viewer in a pater-
nalistic relationship with the local-insider. The
latter is flattened along with all the rest of the
elements within the frame—greenery, houses,
natural elements, ruins, and monuments—into a
picturesque composition.210 At the same time, the
outsider is at liberty to enjoy the affectivity of the
scene—and then turn their back on it.211
Ashbee’s designs for Jerusalem elevates the sub-

102 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 103


Fig 36: Above: “The Jaffa Gate at present, looking towards the city.”
Below, “The same, as suggested when the unsightly obstructions that hide the wall line are cleared away.”
jectivity of its visitor-spectators while ignoring 210
Denis Cosgrove
writes: “Nature observed
the lives of its permanent inhabitants, who do not by an eye trained to look
have the privilege to walk away. He constructed a at it as landscape is in
important respects far
reassuring and familiar ancient city, known not from being realistic. It
is composed, regulated,
only from religious collective memory but also and offered as a static
from landscape paintings. Relocated from the image for individual
appreciation, or better,
walls of a European villa to the drafting tables in appropriation. For
an important, if not
British-Mandate Jerusalem, the constructed view always literal, sense
reflects back to the viewer-as-creator an image of the spectator owns
the view because all
his static patrimonial possession.212 of its components are
structures and directed
towards his eyes only.
[...] the experience of the
insider, the landscape
JERUSALEM AS as subject, and the
A HISTORIC MONUMENT collective life within
it are all implicitly
W.J.T. Mitchell argues that “the invitation to look denied. Subjectivity is
rendered the property of
at a landscape is an invitation not to look at a spe- the artist and view-
er—those who control
cific thing, but to ignore all particulars in favour of an the landscape—and not
appreciation of the whole.”213 Indeed, the project those who belong to
it.” — Cosgrove, Denis
of Jerusalem in the wake of the British occupation E., ​Social Formation and
the Symbolic Landscape
eliminated the spatial and social complexities of (Madison: University
the city in order to improve, preserve, and recover of Wisconsin Press,
1984), 26
an ideal city. The Jerusalem Park system created a
morphological void between ancient and modern
104
fabric, thus articulating the old and new cities
by the logic of difference; the Jerusalem stone
made all that it touches memorable and familiar,
creating an instant signifier for the ‘city of the
mind’; and the ‘removal of obstructions’ assured
that Jerusalem would be instantly legible from a
variety of distances. These interlocking interven-
tions—in plan, legislation and demolition—used
Fig 38: Damascus gate in 1898
TOWARDS JERUSALEM
Fig 37: Demolition of the shops around Jaffa Gate to clear the wall (1944)
the medium of landscape to transform the city. 211
In 1725, common of valorisation. Viewing promenades, pedestrian
English use defined
In its use of landscape, the project was oper- landscape as “a view streets, artist colonies, and outdoor festivals align
ating not only along religious sentiments but or prospect of natural the Holy City with tropes of leisure and increase
inland scenery, such
also under the rules of capitalism: indeed, the as can be taken in at a the visibility of its historic monuments. By apply-
glance from one point
project was conceived on the principles of prop- of view”. In Cosgrove, ​ ing a Marxist analysis of valorisation, we cas view
erty, displacement, and exclusion, and it valorised Social Formation and the commodification of pilgrimage as the cause
the Symbolic Landscape,
Jerusalem as a consumable urban attraction, an 17–19 for the eliminations of other industriess from the
enhanced historic monument. Its success was thus 212
In a landscape Old City and its environs in the hopes of increas-
determined by the real estate market, subject- painting, the view is of ing its surplus value from tourism, thus resulting
“landscape painting is
ing Jerusalem to a pattern common to ancient intended to serve the in a condition where the city’s economic survival
purpose of reflecting
cities across the globe, in which they are both back to the powerful may even depend on the tourist industry’s sus-
made banal and subordinated to their symbolic viewer, at ease in his tained success.215
villa, the image of a con-
value.214 In recent decades, the state of Israel and trolled and well-ordered In the process, Jerusalem became increas-
productive and relaxed
the renewed municipality of post-’67 Jerusalem world.” — Cosgrove, ​ ingly similar to any other historic city. Choay
have deployed mechanisms of enhancement that Social Formation and the argues that “the valorisation of the ancient cen-
Symbolic Landscape, 24
exemplify both Choay’s and Marx’s interpretations 213
tres tends, paradoxically, to become the instru-
Mitchell, W.J.T,
“Space, Place and ment of a secondary form of trivialisation, [as
Landscape”, in cities] begin to resemble each other so closely that
Territories, ed. Anslem
Franke (Berlin: tourists and multinational companies feel iden-
KW-Institute for
Contemporary Art, tically at home in every one of them.”216 Heritage
2003), 170 thus becomes a cult that consumes the city, sym-
214
Choay, The bolically and literally. It is a condition in which
Invention of the Historic
Monument, 153 capitalism exploits not only the city but also its
travellers. The desire for distraction merges with
the consumption of heritage, as historical knowl-
edge becomes a form of entertainment.217 From
pilgrims to surveyors, archaeologists, tourists and
colonisers—Jerusalem’s visitor has morphed from
a subject who undertakes a personal journey to
a passive participant in the mass movement that
Fig 39: Damascus gate in 2020 generates capital. Along the way, the notion of
CHAPTER FOUR— The Innocents Abroad 105
 Fig 40: Jerusalem, looking towards the Jaffa gate from the Ramparts Walk (2020)

memory has been lost: what once carried analog- 215

Ibid
ical power through textual and visual interpreta- 216
Ibid, 155
tion, has now been fixed in space and time, only 217
Ibid,156
to be finally abstracted and reduced to a cyclical
218
In his “Garden of
recollection of drained values. the Forking Paths”
The design chapter of this thesis thus pro- (1941) Jorge Luis Borges
writes; “I leave to the
poses a counter-project to the valorisation of various futures (not to
all) my garden of forking
Jerusalem. In order to untangle the tie between paths (...) In all fictional
pilgrimage and heritage, the project proposes a works, each time a man is
confronted with several
journey, bound neither by geography nor by nar- alternatives, he chooses
one and eliminates the
rativity, but sequenced according to association others; in the fiction of
and analogy. Its stations have not been scru- Ts’ui Pên, he chooses—
simultaneously—all
tinised for authenticity, valorised for visibility, of them. He creates,
in this way, diverse
or commodified for profitability; they cannot be futures, diverse times
ritualised into one sequence, for their devotional which themselves also
proliferate and fork.”
typology is as varied as pilgrimage itself. Instead,
the stations are composed as a multiple-choice
garden of forking paths that traverses the history
of the Holy City in order to carve an analogical
path towards Jerusalem.218

106 TOWARDS JERUSALEM

 C H AP T E R F I V E

THE STATIONS OF
THE CROSS

Fig 1: Folio in the Villers Miscellany, ca. 1320:

The measured wound of Christ incorporated into a word-image design (left)
With a textual description of the associated indulgences (right)

In January of 1417, Sister Truyde of the St Mary 1

Rudy, Kathryn, manuscript, that was based on travelogues
Virtual Pilgrimage in
and St Agnes Convent in Diepenveen asked her the Convent: Imagining written by real pilgrims to the Holy Land and
fellow nun, Sister Ghertruut Huginges, to join her Jerusalem in the Late could thus aid one’s personal imitation of Christ
Middle Ages (Brepols,
on a pilgrimage to Rome.1 If they had left the con- 2011), 123 through compassion (from the Latin com + patior,
vent on time, Truyde said, they could make it to 2
Rudy, Virtual “to suffer with”).3 Evolving in time and space,
Rome by January 27—the day of the virgin martyr Pilgrimage in the these manuscripts led the reader through the
Convent, 20.
Agnes. But on the day of their departure, January Christological narrative from page to page and
3
Mcnamer, Sarah,
7, Ghertruut fell ill and stayed behind; Truyde Affective Meditation from station to station in the actual geography of
said goodbye to her fellow sisters and departed and the Invention of the land and within the imaginary topography of
Medieval Compassion
on her own. (Philadelphia: University the the mind. Illustrations, descriptive text, and
of Pennsylvania Press,
While she did arrive in Rome on time to 2010) prescriptive prayers directed the virtual pilgrim
join the celebrations of St Agnes’s Day, Truyde 4 through the sights of the journey, as it unfolded
Rudy, Kathryn,
had never actually left the convent; in fact, nei- Rubrics, Images and experientially in the imagination of the reader
Indulgences in late
ther she nor her fellow nun Ghertruut had ever Medieval Netherlandish and spatially within the monastic cell.
been to the real city of Rome, and it is unlikely Manuscripts, (Leiden: The visual representations varied greatly in
Brill, 2017), 58-80;Nine
that they had been outside the convent at all in Miedema, “Following in iconography and style, but maintained a consis-
the Footsteps of Christ:
decades. The pilgrimage Truyde undertook in 1417 Pilgrimage and Passion tent aim: to allow an enclosed woman to enact
(and Ghertruut several years before her) was not Devotion” in The Broken Christ’s last moments and thus embody his pain.
Body. Passion Devotion
a physical journey, but a mental one, conducted in Late-Medieval Culture The instructive manuscripts thus consisted of
(Groningen: Egbert
through a choreography of prayers, meditations Forsten, 1998),84 both figurative and symbolic motifs, from realist
and physical actions. images of Christ’s bleeding body to measure-
This unique form of female spirituality was ments taken in the Holy Land such as the length
common in the Middle Ages amongst enclosed of his tomb or number of steps between holy sites.
women who could not afford (financially or spir- These details provided the reader with the tools to
itually) a physcial pilgrimage. It provided them reenact the exact ritual a pilgrim would undertake
with a different way to ‘travel’ to the holy sites, physically in Jerusalem, while her mind could
gain indulgences and reach spiritual ascen- meditate on Christ’s pain and suffering. She
sion—all without leaving their monastic cell.2 A could, for example, climb 28 steps on her bleed-
key component of this ritual was the devotional ing knees in the convent and walk the 232 “ells”

CHAPTER FIVE— The Stations of The Cross 01


(approximately 135 metres) to Calvary, while con-
templating the saviour’s bloody, naked body.4 The
intensity of this ritual in both body and mind led
devout women into deep compassion, emotional
recollection, and even ecstatic immersion. For
this ritual to be successful, image and text were
enacted as complementary modes of represen-
tation, simultaneously prescribing directions for
prayer and movement. In effect, the manuscripts
were presenting the visible as a stepping stone to
imagine the invisible.
In addition to eliminating the dangers and
hardships of physical journeys, virtual traval
allowed the pilgrim to leap through time and
space. While physical pilgrims had to choose
between the sacred geography or Jerusalem or
the holy artefacts in Rome, an imagined itinerary
could combine both in a single day: one could be
‘walking’ in Jerusalem while ‘stopping’ en route
at Rome’s Seven Churches.5 Virtual pilgrimage
could also offer an improved version of the Holy
Land in the eyes of the pilgrim: while the real
Holy Sepulchre was likely a dark and unappealing
space during the years of Jerusalem’s non-Chris-
tian rule, the devotional manuscript presented
a facsimile of a place that was well-lit, airy, and
Western in its design and materiality. In his 1491
pilgrim guide, for instance, Felix Fabri attempted
to rewrite the geopolitical reality of Mamluk
rule over Jerusalem. He used Christian scriptural
Fig 2: Rock Upon Which Jesus
Leaned, R.E.M Bein (1894). [Matt:
xxvi: 36] — “then cometh Jesus
with them onto a place called
Gethsemane, and saith onto the
disciples‭, Sit ye here, while I
go and pray and yonder.” After
rising from this last prayer
tired and heart-broken it is
thought that Jesus leaned
upon the rock illustrated in the
above picture for a moment’s
rest. Standing here and seeing
hundreds of Russian pilgrims,
nothing I had ever witnessed
before was so deeply pathetic as
to see those poor people bend
and kiss this rock. The truth is
that the rock is actually being
kissed away by the lips of devoted
saints.”
02
5 8
She could visit Vincent, John H.
Bethlehem to see Christ’s (Bishop) and Lee,
place of birth and see names for Islamic monuments and wrote about chapter of this dissertation. Fabri’s symbolic James W. (Rev.), Earthly size photographs were the dominating element
his crib in Santa Maria Footsteps of the Man
Maggiore; continue
going to the House of Veronica and Pilate’s appropriation of Jerusalem could proliferate in of Galilee, Being Four
(Earthly Footsteps was over two feet wide), they
to the room of the last Palace, despite the entry restrictions on Christian the minds of his readers and lead them through a Hundred Original were carefully mediated by scriptural verses and
Supper in Jerusalem Photographic Views
but see the table where visitors enforced at the time of his visit.6 pilgrimage from their own room. In other words, and Descriptions of the informative captions, such as “The Spot Where
they ate in St John the Places Connected with
Lateran; in Calvary the
An additional manipulation by Fabri was the by disentanglinsg collective memories from their the Earthly Life of Our
Christ Prayed” and “The Flock near the Pit into
hill of the crucifixion rearrangement of his itinerary into a more legi- physical markers (to refer back to Halbwachs’ Lord and His Apostles which Joseph was Thrown by his Brethren.” As
could be completed with Traced with Note Book
the nails of the Cross ble one for a distant reader. Instead of recording ‘landmarks’), they could be recalled within a flex- and Camera (St. Louis: in the Medieval guides for virtual travel, the text
from Santa Croce in The N.D Thompson
Rome. — Van Asperen,
places in the geographical order he had seen in ible topography through mnemonic association, Company” 1894)
was an instrumental part of the remote pilgrim-
op. cit., 198. From a Palestine, Fabri chronicled his visits according to sensorial interaction, and imaginative labour. 9
age by fostering a mnemonic affiliation between
compilation of mental Davis, The Landscape
pilgrimages, written in a their Sciprutral position. In other words, the sites of Belief, p 77. what is pictured and the collective memories
Brigittine convent, late
fifteenth century, kept
appeared in his pilgrim guide as they would be 10
Ibid, 83
that are embedded in the Scriptures. Thus, the
in The British Library,
Ms 31001, fols 68v-69r.
read and preached, not as one would see them in JOURNEY ROUND MY ROOM 11
Sekula criticised
bishop’s captions were infusing the landscape
reality. While a physical traveller would first see the fact that in the with transcendent meaning, thereby transform-
6
Felix Fabri, Die new topographics
Sionpilger, (ca. 1491)
Nazereth, then Jerusalem, and finally Betlehem, Books and manuscripts regained their relevance exhibition, captions
ing Palestine’s nondescript sites into landmarks
eds. Wieland Carls,126. his account reordered these sites to follow the as tools for sedentery pilgrimage in the nine- were minimal and in the eyes of the book’s reader. Framed by the
informative, providing
7
Kathryne Beebe, narrative of Christ’s Nativity, miracle-working in teenth century with the invention of photogra- no further explanation. syntactic composition of the photo book, this ap-
“The Jerusalem of the Writing about Lewis
Mind’s Eye: Imagined
the north, and finally the Passion in Jerusalem. phy. Travelogues adorned with photographs were Baltz’s Industrial Park
propriation of the landscape added legibility and
Pilgrimage in the Late This altered itinerary removed the confusing treated as more than an assembly of postcards— series, he argued that credibility to the sights without valorising the land
Fifteenth Century” “Baltz’s photographs
in Visual Constructs topographical conditions and thus made the nar- they could transmit the spatial experience of of enigmatic factories itself or creating permanent transformations.10
of Jerusalem, eds. B. fail to tell us anything
Kühnel, G. Noga-Banai,
rative coherent for a virtual traveller.7 pilgrimage for those unable to undertake the —
about them.” Sekula,
Similar to the medieval manuscripts, these devo-
H. Vorholt (Brepols Part-biblical, part-Crusader, and part-scrip- pysical journey, just like in a Medieval convent. In Allan “Dismantling tional travelogues instrumentalised image-and-
Publishers: Turnhout, Modernism: Reinventing
2014), 415 tural, Fabri’s Jerusalem could never exist on earth, 1894, an extensive reportage was published under Documentary (Notes text to root the journey in a sacred topography,
on the Politics of
but could be readily imagined in the minds of his the suggestive title Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Representation)” in
while shielding its surface from various forms of
readers. This appropriation and authorial agency Galilee, showcasing over 400 photographs by the Photography Against political and economic exploitation.
the Grain, Essays and
created the opportunity to trespass political, relatively unknown R.E.M. Bain and a text by the Photo Works 1973-1983 Following this lineage of devotional trav-
(Halifax: The Press of
logistical, and economic constraints. Distilling Bishop John H. Vincent.8 The book provides visual Nova Scotia College of
elogues extending from the nineteenth to the
elements of veneration from the complexity of and textual descriptions of Christ’s life on earth Art and Design, 1984), 64 thirteenth centuries, the photographic project
the real Jerusalem, virtual travel, or mental pil- using “notebook and camera” for armchair read- presented below is conceptualised as a travelouge
grimage, offers a far less violent appropriation ers who could enjoy “a delightful tour of Palestine for virtual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. This Jerusalem,
of Jerusalem than the ones studied in the final [...] without leaving home.”9 While Bain’s over- however, is not only the physcial place in
Fig 3: The Valley of Ajalon--Where
Joshua commanded the sun and
moon to stand still, R.E.M Bein
(1894). [Joshua, x:12.]—”Then
spake Joshua to the Lord in the
day when the Lord delivered up
the Amorites before the children
of Israel, and he said in the sight
of Israel, Sun, stand thou still
upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon,
in the valley of Ajalon.” [...] It is
a broad and beautiful valley near
the city of Ajalon. It is about 14
miles from Jerusalem. Ajalon was
a Levitical city of Dan. It was also
one of the cities of refuge, and
the city doubtless stood in this
noted valley.”
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— The Stations of The Cross 03
 Fig 4: Allan Sekula, Aerospace Folktales (1973) Fig 5: Allan Sekula, Aerospace Folktales (1973)

Palestine, but the one enacted and adapted across 12 contradict, reinforce, subvert, complement, par- modern art market. By using text to construct a 17 offer an alternative to the regime of visual per-
Sekula, Dismantling Smithson, Robert,
the West as an idea and an orientation, using ana- Modernism: Reinventing ticularize, or go beyond the meanings offered by narrative, Sekula resists this valorisation by pro- “The Monuments of ception.
Documentary, 60 Passaic", Artforum,
logical thinking and theatrical staging. Entitled the images themselves.”12 In the context of 1970s posing an “essayistic discursive argumentation, December 1967, 52-57 Meanwhile, in Homes For America (1966), Dan
13
Sekula criticises the
The Stations of the Cross, the project learns from the America, when photography was gaining cur- the idea that the photograph could appear in a 18 Graham used a simple Kodak camera to photo-
fact that photographs Reynolds, Ann, Robert
affective representational techniques explored were becoming artworks rency as an autonomous artistic practice, Sekula kind of ensemble in some way that is something Smithson: Learning from graph tract housing in New Jersey and Levittown
whose value is not only New Jersey and Elsewhere
above by juxtaposing image and text as parallel that of use, but also of worked to reclaim the medium’s utilitarian ori- like a proseor an essay was being played out.”16 (cambridge: MIT Press, as beautiful works of minimalist art, which he
exchange. That is, they 2003)
modes of representation. Rather than using illus- gins and formulate an alternative practice by Through a careful syntax of image and text, affectionately labelled “his [Donald] Judds.”19 First
become not utilitarian
19
trations or images of the Holy Land, like in the carriers of information, rethinking the relationship between image and Aerospace not only raises a constellation of themes Donald Judd was presented as a slideshow, Graham’s photographs
but a commodity that a major Minimalist
canonic Stations of the Cross that have been stud- enters the Modernist art text.13 His first major project, Aerospace Folktales such as domesticity, labour, class, and gender, but artist, known for his were later edited into a magazine article where
market. He attributed modular sculptures of
ied in this dissertations, it is composed of photo- (1973), follows the life of a middle-class family also invokes issues of representation, visual semi- the mass-produced homes were confronted with
this to the lack of text, replicated geometric
graphs of sites both in Jerusalem and outside of it. writing that a photo in Southern California after the father had lost ology, and the role of the artist within society. shapes. In “Homes for their mode of production, juxtaposing cheap-
with a sparse caption America”(1966-7) Dan
Instead of scriptural verses, prayers, instructions, “is a sign, above all, of his job as an aerospace engineer at Lockheed. My Stations of the Cross embraces this critique, and Graham likened the ly-printed colour photographs with developers’
aspiration toward the replicated homes to >>
or descriptions, it includes first-hand experiences Sekula photographs this prototypical family in follows Sekula’s assertion that the photographer offerings of floor plans, house models, finishing
esthetic and market Judd’s work, suggesting
of past pilgrims to Jerusalem. The text does not conditions of modernist and around their Los Angeles apartment as they bears the responsibility to supplement the visual a similarity in the mode colours and furniture arrangements. Using his
painting and sculpture. of production of Judd’s
provide illustrative captions for the photographs In this white void, go about their daily lives: the children read or content with textual context. Minimalist sculptures own photographs alongside readymade texts
meaning is thought to and New Jersey’s
or an explanation of the sights, but the reactions, play, the mother is mostly in the kitchen, and the Other combinations of text and image that from advertising booklets, Graham forms a cri-
emerge entirely from mass-produced housing.
disappointments, meditations, and subjective within the artwork.” father, coping with his new status as an unem- inspired the Stations can be found in the works -"Homes for America: tique of not only the culture of cheaply-built
Indeed, photography’s Early 20th-Century
interpretations of the journey and its topography affinity with modernist ployed white-collar professional, attempts to fix of artists Robert Smithson and Dan Graham. In Possessable House of the cookie-cutter homes, but also the role of photog-
painting reached its Quasi-Discrete Cell of
by pilgrims. By reading these excerpts alongside household appliances while applying for new 1967, Smithson travelled from New York City to raphy in disseminating and naturalisating this
peak in the 1970s, as '66." Arts Magazine 41,
the photographs of Jerusalem’s alternatives, one Lewitz Baltz notes: jobs.14 Initially composed of 142 photographs, text his hometown in New Jersey with a notebook no. 3 (December 1966– domestic typology as an object of popular con-
“While it was extremely January 1967), 22
may consider the tension between the real and difficult to see photo- cards, and a sound installation, Aerospace juxta- and a cheap camera. Travelling on foot, Smithson sumption.20
20
graphs exhibited as art Salvesen, Britt “New
imagined Jerusalem, the sign, signified, and dis- poses signs of everyday domesticity with behind- stops to photograph the entropic landscape of The fascination with the replicated land-
on New York galleries Topographics” in New
location of collective memory. walls in 1967, by 1977 it the-scenes details of his photographic process the Passaic River which he ironically (or per- Topographics (Steidl; scape of suburbia visualised by Graham echoes
was extremely difficult 2009), 22-23
—
not to.” Baltz, Lewis, and anecdotes from the mechanism of family haps poetically) captions as monuments: the pipes that of an artist whose influence on this thesis
21
American Photography in Ed Ruscha, “Pop Art,
life. The novelty of Aerospace is not the subject dumping polluted liquids into the river are enti- cannot be overstated: Ed Ruscha. In 1961, Ruscha
the 1970s: Too Young to and Spectatorship in
THE IMAGE AND THE CAPTION Rock, Too Old to Die, 54 matter per se—similar subjects had been docu- tled the Fountain Monument, and a floating pumping 1960s Los Angeles” in
The Art Bulletin Vol. 92,
published Twenty-six Gasoline Stations, a series of
14
Buchloh, Benjamin mented by Stephen Shore and Robert Adams— derrick is simply Monument with Pontoons.17 When No. 3 (September 2010), photographs depicting every gas station between
H.D., “Allan Sekula, or 231-249
The choice of format for this project is lead rather, Sekula’s is distinguished by his choice Smithson asks if “Passaic has replaced Rome as his Los Angeles home and his parents’ house in
What Is Photography?”in
22
not only with the historic research on virtual Grey Room , Spring not to distance himself from the critique of the the eternal city,” he is questioning not only the Ibid Oklahoma in a deadpan style of detachment.21 It
2014, No. 55, Allan
pilgrim guides, but is set within the theoretical Sekula and the Traffic disintegration of the American dream. In a sur- idea of monuments as sites of collective memory, 23
Ruscha, Ed, Leave follows a serial rather than associative logic, akin
in Photographs (Spring Any Information at
framework proposed by theorist and photog- prise shift from observational to autobiograph- but the very essence of recollection as it could to a topographical study that were discussed in
2014), pp. 116-129 the Signal: Writings,
rapher Allan Sekula. In his polemic response to 15
ical, we discover that the unemployed engineer arise from signs of mundanity.18 This interpreta- Interviews, Bits, Pages the introduction as the leading method of this
Ibid ed. Alexandra Schwartz
the New Topographics exhibition (in particular the is in fact Sekula’s father.15 Sekula thus presents tion is made possible thanks to Smithson’s clever (Cambridge: the MIT dissertation. Ruscha perfected his approach in
16
Tchen, Jack, Press, 2004)
depictions of industrial warehouses by Lewis a practice-based resistance to the modernist use of the caption, a technique not dissimilar his subsequent Every Building on the Sunset Strip
“Interview with Allan
24
Baltz11), Sekula argued that photography cannot Sekula: Los Angeles, autonomy of the image, which viewed documen- from the annotations of the medieval pilgrim Rian, Jeff, Lewis Baltz (1966), Thirty-Four Parking Lots in Los Angeles (1967),
California, October 26, (Phaidon, 2001)
remain as sparsely-captioned images on the gal- 2002” in International tary photography not as a utilitarian carrier of guides, where text introduces a didactic context and Nine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass (1968),
25
Labor and Working-Class See Martha Rosler,
lery wall, and that text should be used to “anchor, information, but as a commodity that enters the in order to resist the autonomy of the image and where he documented the vernacular elements
History , Fall, 2004, The Bowery in two
No. 66, (Cambridge: inadequate descriptive
Cambridge University systems, (1974-5); Victor
04 Press, 2004), 165 TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— Burgin US77 (1977),
Zoo78 (1978)
The Stations of The Cross 05

Fig 6: Robert Smithson, “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic” (detail),
published in Artforum, December 1967
of suburbanised Los Angeles with a mix of attrac-
tion and repulsion, compelling his audience to
perceive the spatial experience of the city with a
detached estrangement.22
Despite their different approaches to text,
seriality, and image sequences, these photogra-
phers were all meandering across America’s roads
and cities with a camera, performing what can be
described as a secular pilgrimage. The photograph,
like the station, was thus an index of the ritual
itself. Their work (the photobook or the magazine
spread) spatialised this journey as a sequence of
images that introduced a spatial temporality
to the act of photography, emphasising less the
subject matter and more the action itself. In 1972,
Ruscha said, “Sometimes the ugliest things have
the most potential. I truly enjoyed the whole
06
Fig 7: Dan Graham, Homes for America (1966-7)
way of seeing in those iconic works was critiqued 29
Han, Byung-Chul, The stations along the journey are equally worthy of
Disappearance of Ritual
and creatively dismantled in the works of Sekulla, (Cambridge: Polity, meditation, thus removing the sacro-geographic
Martha Rosler and Victor Burgin.25 Although 2009), 6 hierarchy introduced by institutions. Evans’s
these two aspects seemed inalienable in the ’60s radical photobook thus becomes the model for
and ’70s, the same fundamental aesthetic con- The Stations of the Cross, where every photograph
dition can be traced to earlier works that had a carries the same amount of visual information:
different perspective, particularly Walker Evans, there is no progression of emotion or topographic
one of the most influential photographers of the escalation, but a steady journey towards a des-
twentieth century. From the end of the 1920s, tination. The composition of the frames in the
Evans travelled across America to document Stations echoes this assertion, as each monument
the ordinary landscapes that sprawled in and is approached laterality, incorporating the path
around small suburban towns during the Great and landscape as equally valuable in the spatial
Depression. Intrigued by decay and austerity, envelope of the station, thus blurring topographic
Evans photographed commonplace subjects with figure and ground. Images are organized in pairs
26 afternoon while I shot these pictures. It’s a great frontal views, sharp details, and steady composi- that share superficial and structural analogies,
Vicki Goldberg,
Robert Silberman, and feeling to be on self-assignment, out looking for tions, echoing the functional aesthetics of hard and are complemented with a parallel stream
Garrett White, American
Photography: A Century subjects. I went off in the car and I went down to economic times in a manner that he called doc- of textual descriptions from pilgrim travelogues
of Images ( Chronicle these little towns, to Santa Ana, Downey, places umentary style.26 In 1938, Evans published American that open a field of associations and interpreta-
Books, 1999), 98-99;
James C. Curtis and like that. I was exalted at the same time that I Photographs, a photobook that visualised his com- tions.
Sheila Grannen, “Let Us
Now Appraise Famous was repulsed by the whole thing.”23 mentary on America, travel, and the role of pho- As an alternative to the Via Crucis, this
Photographs: Walker Ruscha had a key influence on the New tography within it. Comprising 87 photographs of travelogue unfolds across a non-linear journey,
Evans and Documentary
Photography”, Topographics exhibition, whose influence on this the streets, homes, and citizens of America, this without a clear geographical path, a historical
Winterthur Portfolio ,
Spring, 1980, Vol. 15, thesis is elaborated on in the introduction. For travelogue was organised not chronologically or lineage, or even an typological logic, but rather
No. 1 (Spring, 1980), pp. Baltz, discovering his books was finding “pho- geographically, but through nuances and analo- through nuanced associations. This mode of
1-23, Published by: The
University of Chicago tography degree zero”—in fact, he said that gies.27 traveling requires no means. It costs nothing;
Press, 4
“Ruscha was the presiding spirit over the whole Evans’s photographic journeys across there are no alms distributed or indulgences
27
Company, David, The show, because we all knew those books, and we all America’s topographies of desolation resurrect collected, and no concessions to political or eco-
Open Road: Photography
and the American admired them.”24 The legacy of artistic photogra- a mode of eremitic Christian pilgrimage that is nomic exploitation. The Stations of the Cross, like the
Road Trip (New York:
Aperture, 2014), 13 phy outlined above inspired the New Topographics now gone: the wandering foreigner who opts out manuscripts of the medieval nuns or the photo-
28 in its aestheticisation of modesty and anonymity, of society in favour of a self-imposed exile.28 In graphic travelogues of the nineteenth century,
Sumption, Age of
Pilgrimage, 130 while the exclusive reliance on a ‘photographic’ this open-ended form of peripatetic devotion, all have the power to reclaim not only of travel, but
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— The Stations of The Cross 07

Fig 8: Edward Ruscha, Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963)
also travel writing, as a genre tainted with cul-
tural bias and bound with colonial violence. The
Stations does not attempt to demarcate a foreign
territory, cast subjective judgment, or ‘write-out’
a disenchanted encounter.
One might argue that the possibilities
provided by digital platforms make such proj-
ects redundant. Religious services are available
on-demand, virtual experiences dissolve geo-
graphical boundaries, and the infinite stream of
visual content relieves any need for mental imag-
ination. As such, the labour that was invested
in such rituals is no longer relevant. Pilgrimage
ceases to disrupt one’s daily life: something
which once signalled a complete break from rou-
tine disintegrates from an anti-structure back to
structure. If Christ is indeed found within one-
self, perhaps a retreat from the public realm and
Fig 9: Walker Evans, Houses, Atlanta, Georgia (1936)
08
analogical travel—one that does not fix the course
of movement, but simply provides an orientation:
towards Jerusalem. As Xavier de Maistre wrote in
Journey Around My Room:
Read it! I have undertaken and performed a forty-two
days’ journey round my room [...] The pleasure to be found
in travelling round one’s room is sheltered from the restless
jealousy of men, and is independent of fortune. [...] Every
man of sense will, I am sure, adopt my system, whatev-
er may be his peculiar character or temperament. Be he
miserly or prodigal, rich or poor, young or old, born beneath
the torrid zone or near the poles, he may travel with me.
Among the immense family of men who throng the earth,
there is not one, no, not one (I mean of those who inhabit
rooms), who, after reading this book, can refuse his appro-
bation of the new mode of travelling I introduce into the
world.31
30 the removal of ritualistic interruption will mark
Han, The
Disappearance of Ritual, not the end, but the beginning of an old-new
7-8
mode of devotion that is practised with one’s own
31
Maistre, Xavier de, confines. However, as things stand today, this
A journey round my
room, trans. H.A seems far from possible: the sedentary journeys
(London: Longmans,
Green, Reader and Dyer, of the Middle Ages were exhausting undertak-
1871), 1-3 ings, requiring intense physical, emotional, and
mental labour. The nuns who created life-size
dioramas within their monastic cells performed
rituals that stabilised their lives in times of
uncertainty and confinement. By repeating a set
of prayers and actions, they could find a fleet-
ing detachment from themselves in favour of a
greater system of order.29
Today, virtual experiences that offer remote
travel are mere simulations: they create visual
shortcuts to cathartic endings, which fail to
move us to the emotional depths once experi-
enced in sedentary pilgrimage. While technology
does offer comfort and security—negating the
disturbance caused by rituals—it nonetheless
erodes whatever is left of our ability to imagine.
As Byung-Chul Han argues in The Disappearance of
Ritual (2009), “perception is never at rest: it has
lost the capacity to linger. The cultural technique
of deep attention emerged precisely out of ritual
and religious practices [...] Every religious prac-
tice is an exercise in attention.”30 When rituals
no longer require investment, distraction takes
command, and they lose their stabilising power.
The Stations propose an exercise of attention, set-
ting off from within one’s room and meandering
between images and text of travellers’ past, and
thus constructing a topography that merges
movement, sentiment, and space into a mode of
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— The Stations of The Cross 09
PHOTOGRAPHIC
TRAVELOGUE

The men I met coming from Jerusalem reported all sorts of
contradictory impressions; and yet my own impression contradicted
them all. Their impressions were doubtless as true as mine; but I
describe my own because it is true, and because I think it points to
a neglected truth about the real Jerusalem. I need not say I did not
expect the real Jerusalem to be the New Jerusalem; a city of charity
and peace, any more than a city of chrysolite and pearl.
I might more reasonably have expected an austere and
ascetic place, oppressed with the weight of its destiny, with no inns
except monasteries, and these sealed with the terrible silence of the
Trappists; an awful city where men speak by signs in the street.
I did not need the numberless jokes about Jerusalem to-day,
to warn me against expecting this; anyhow I did not expect it, and
certainly I did not find it. But neither did I find what I was much
more inclined to expect; something at the other extreme. There may
be more of this in the place than pleases those who would idealise
it. But I fancy there is much less of it than is commonly supposed in
the reaction from such an ideal.

CHAPTER FIVE— I Stations of the Cross

 Here you see the cause of all our labours. This Jerusalem is the
reflection of the heavenly Jerusalem. This city has the form of the
city to which we aspire. This Jerusalem you see, which you face,
prefigures and represents the heavenly city.

I TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— II Stations of the Cross

II TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— III Stations of the Cross
Then indeed I knew that what I saw was Jerusalem of the Crusaders;
or at least Jerusalem of the Crusades. It was a medieval town, with
walls and gates and a citadel, and built upon a hill to be defended
by bowmen. The wall and gates which now stand, whatever stood
before them and whatever comes after them, carry a memory of
those men from the West who came here upon that wild adventure,
who climbed this rock and clung to it so perilously from the victory
of Godfrey to the victory of Saladin; and that is why this momentary
Eastern exile reminded me so strangely of home.
III
When we had finished our prayer we remounted our asses, having
our eyes full of tears and our cheeks wet with joy. This joy did not
arise from passion, but from reason; not from the presence of an
object of desire, but of a thing deserving of love because it was
precious: it was not gladness which leads to licentiousness, but
rather to seriousness, which moves one not to laughter, but rather
to sobs; which does not shake the body, but bends the limbs; does
not lead to speech, but to silence.
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— IV Stations of the Cross
 My impression remained primarily a thing of walls and gates; a
thing which the modern world does not perhaps understand so
well as the medieval world. There is involved in it all that idea of
definition which those who do not like it are fond of describing as
dogma. A wall is like rule; and the gates are like the exceptions that
prove the rule. The man making it has to decide where his rule will
run and where his exception shall stand. He cannot have a city that
is all gates any more than a house that is all windows; nor is it
possible to have a law that consists entirely of liberties. The ancient
races and religions that contended for this city agreed with each
other in this, when they differed about everything else. It was true
of practically all of them that when they built a city they built a
citadel. That is, whatever strange thing they may have made, they
regarded it as something to be defined and to be defended.

IV TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— V Stations of the Cross

 I had thought of that moment for years, in waking and in sleeping
dreams.[...] I stood in the road, my hand on my horse’s neck, and
with my dim eyes sought to trace the outlines of the holy places
which I had long before fixed in my mind. The more I gazed, the
more I could not see.

V TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— VI Stations of the Cross

VI TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— VII Stations of the Cross
As I have said, I had expected many things of Jerusalem, but I
had not expected this. I had expected to be disappointed with it
as a place utterly profaned [sic] and fallen below its mission.I had
expected to be awed by it; indeed I had expected to be frightened of
it, as a place dedicated and even doomed by its mission. But I had
never fancied that it would be possible to be fond of it; as one might
be fond of a little walled town among the orchards of Normandy or
the hop-fields of Kent.
VII
So far as I can recall them, my impressions, though aesthetically
and architecturally better founded, resume what we felt seven years
ago: firstly, that the faking of the sites and indignity with which
even when authentic they are now misrepresented, is an irritation,
an imposition, and an affront to the intelligence secondly, that the
pathos, grandeur and nobility of the ancient City of the Heart easily
countervails these very real annoyances.
TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— VIII Stations of the Cross
 I can understand a man who had only seen in the distance Jerusalem
sitting on the hill going no further and keeping that vision for ever.
It would, of course, be said that it was absurd to come at all, and
to see so little. To which I answer that in that sense it is absurd to
come at all. It is no more fantastic to turn back for such a fancy than
it was to come for a similar fancy. A man cannot eat the Pyramids;
he cannot buy or sell the Holy City; there can be no practical aspect
either of his coming or going. If he has not come for a poetic mood
he has come for nothing; if he has come for such a mood, he is not
a fool to obey that mood. The way to be really a fool is to try to be
practical about unpractical things. It is to try to collect clouds or
preserve moonshine like money. [...] It may be argued that it is just
as illogical to hope to fix beforehand the elusive effects of the works
VIII TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— IX
of man as of the works of nature. It may be called a contradiction in
terms to expect the unexpected. It may be counted mere madness
to anticipate astonishment, or go in search of a surprise. To all of
which there is only one answer; that such anticipation is absurd,
and such realisation will be disappointing, that images will seem
to be idols and idols will seem to be dolls, unless there be some
rudiment of such a habit of mind as I have tried to suggest in this
chapter. No great works will seem great, and no wonders of the
world will seem wonderful, unless the angle from which they are
seenis that of historical humility.
Stations of the Cross
IX TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— X Stations of the Cross
Forsake cities and their crowds. live on a small patch of ground,
seek Christ in solitude, pray on the mount alone with Jesus, keep
near to holy places: keep out of cities, I say, and you will never lose
your vocation.
X TOWARDS JERUSALEM
All this historic or pre-historic interest may be touched on in its
turn; but I am not dealing here with the historic secrets unearthed
by the study of the place, but with the historic associations aroused
by the sight of it. The traveller is in the position of that famous
fantastic who tied his horse to a wayside cross in the snow, and
afterward saw it dangling from the church-spire of what had been
a buried city.
I do not forget, of course, that all these visible walls and towers
are but the battlements and pinnacles of a buried city, or of many
buried cities. I do not forget that such buildings have foundations
that are to us almost like fossils; the gigantic fossils of some other
geological epoch. Something may be said later of those lost empires
whose very masterpieces are to us like petrified monsters.
CHAPTER FIVE— XI Stations of the Cross
 All the religious rubbish of the different nations, says a recent
traveller, live at Jerusalem separated from each other, hostile and
jealous, a nomad population [...] Jerusalem is but a place where
everyone arrives to pitch his tent and where nobody remains.

XI TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— XII Stations of the Cross

 A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid; but it is more strange
when the hill cannot anywhere be hid, even from the citizen in the
city.

XII TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— XIII Stations of the Cross

XIII TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— XIV Stations of the Cross
 —I— —V—
Left: Station II, Sacro Monte di Belmonte Left: Tomb of Abshalom, son of King Solomon
(1712) Piemonte, Italy (1st Century AD) Valley of Kidron, Jerusalem
Right: Station VII, Sacro Monte di Varese Right: The Holy Sepulchre (Round Church) of
(1623) Lombardy, Italy Cambridge (1284) Cambridge, England

Text: Chesterton, G.K.,The New Jerusalem Text: Chesterton, G.K.,The New Jerusalem
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920) (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920)

—II—
Left: Church of the Holy Sepulchre
(ca. 12th Century), Basilica of Santo Stefano,
Bologna, Italy
Right: Station IV, Sacro Monte di Crea
(1589) Piemonte, Italy
Text: Duke of Normandy (leader of the First
Crusade) to his soldiers before the final assault
on Jerusalem in 1099.:
—VI—
Left: Mark of the Via Francigena, St. Bernard’s
Pass, Aosta Valley, Italy/Switzerland
Right: Station II, Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem
_Prime, William Cowper, Tent Life in the Holy
Land (New York: Harper Brothers, 1857).

—III—
Left: Station XIV, Sacro Monte di Orta
(1583) Piemonte, Italy
Right: Temple Church of the Knights Templars
(1185 AD) Inss of Court, City of London,
United Kingdom
—VII—
Left: Station V, Adam Kraft’s Stations of the
Cross (1490) Nuremberg, Germany
Right: Station I, Via Crucis of Tre Cunei,
(date unknown) Piemonte, Italy
Text: Chesterton, G.K.,The New Jerusalem
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920)

Palestine is a striped country; that is the first effect of landscape
on the eye. It runs in great parallel lines wavering into vast hills
and valleys, but preserving the parallel pattern; as if drawn boldly
but accurately with gigantic chalks of green and grey and red and
yellow. The natural explanation or (to speak less foolishly) the
natural process of this is simple enough. The stripes are the strata of
the rock, only they are stripped by the great rains, so that everything
has to grow on ledges, repeating yet again that terraced character
to be seen in the vineyards and the staircase streets of the town.
And even what rock there is is coloured with a thousand
secondary and tertiary tints, as are the walls and streets of the Holy
City which is built from the quarries of these hills. For the old stones
of the old Jerusalem are as precious as the precious stones of the
New Jerusalem; and at certain moments of morning or of sunset,
every pebble might be a pearl.
And all these coloured strata rise so high and roll so far Text: Chesterton, G.K.,The New Jerusalem
that they might be skies rather than slopes. It is as if we looked
up at a frozen sunset; or a daybreak fixed forever with its fleeting
bars of cloud. And indeed the fancy is not without a symbolic
(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920)
—VIII—
suggestiveness. This is the land of eternal things; but we tend too Left: Chapel of the Ascension
much to forget that recurrent things are eternal things. We tend (390 AD), Jerusalem
to forget that subtle tones and delicate hues, whether in the hills
or the heavens, were to the primitive poets and sages as visible as —IV— Right: Station IX, Sacro Monte di Crea
(1589) Piemonte, Italy
they are to us. The sorrow of all Palestine is that its divisions in
Left: Station II, Sacro Monte di Varallo Text: Storrs, Ronald, Orientations, (London:
culture, politics and theology are like its divisions in geology. The
(1491) Lombardy, Italy Nicholson and Watson, 1937)
dividing line is horizontal instead of vertical. The frontier does not
Right: Station IV, The sanctuary of Saint
run between states but between stratified layers. The Jew did not Anthony in Mongardino
appear beside the Canaanite but on top of the Canaanite; the Greek (1730) Asti, Piemonte, Italy
not beside the Jew but on top of the Jew; the Moslem not beside
the Christian but on top of the Christian. It is not merely a house
divided against itself, but one divided across itself.
Text: Fabri, Felix, The Book of Wanderings of
Brother Felix Fabri, ed. A. Stewart (Palestine
Pilgrims’ Text Society; London 1892)
—IX—
Left: Station III, Adam Kraft’s Stations of the
Cross (1490) Nuremberg, Germany
Right: Station VIII, Via Crucis of Alberto de la
Torre, (erection date unknown) Piemonte, Italy

Text: Chesterton, G.K.,The New Jerusalem

(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920)

XIV TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER ONE— The Invention of the Holy Land
 —X—
Left: Church of the Holy Sepulchre
(ca. 12th Century), Basilica of Santo Stefano,
Bologna, Italy
Right: Station IV, Sacro Monte di Crea
(1589) Piemonte, Italy

Text: St Jerome letter 53 to Paulinus CA 395 AD

—XI—
Left: Station XIV, Sacro Monte di Orta
(1583) Piemonte, Italy
Right: Temple Church of the Knights Templars
(1185 AD) Inss of Court, City of London,
United Kingdom

Text: Chesterton, G.K.,The New Jerusalem

(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920)

—XII—
Left: Tomb of Abshalom, son of King Solomon
(1st Century AD) Valley of Kidron, Jerusalem
Right: The Holy Sepulchre (Round Church) of
Cambridge (1284) Cambridge, England

Text: Marx, Karl, New York Tribune (New York),

April, 15, 1854

—XIII—
Left: Mark of the Via Francigena, St. Bernard’s
Pass, Aosta Valley, Italy/Switzerland
Right: Station II, Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem

Text: Chesterton, G.K.,The New Jerusalem

(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920)

—XIV—
Left: Station V, Adam Kraft’s Stations of the
Cross (1490) Nuremberg, Germany
Right: Station I, Via Crucis of Tre Cunei,
(date unknown) Piemonte, Italy

Text: Chesterton, G.K.,The New Jerusalem

(London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1920)

TOWARDS JERUSALEM CHAPTER FIVE— Stations of the Cross

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MATERIAL
1. Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF), London.
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a. 10516 — Sir Patrick Geddes,
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b. FO371 — Foreign Office, Palestine Original
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1921
b. LI8 — Palestine Land development Company,
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Lindsay, Lord, Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy
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1916)
Melville, Herman, Journal of a Visit to Europe
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Ed. Howard C. Horsford (Princeton: Princeton
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Miller, Daniel Long, Wanderings in Bible Lands:
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Minor, Clorinda, Meshullam! Or, Tidings from
Jerusalem from the Journal of a Believer Recently
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151

SECONDARY
The secondary material provides the theoretical
background for the thesis. It consists of literature
regarding the politics of heritage, preservation,
and conservation, which are relevant to the urban
evolution of Jerusalem. It also includes theories of
commemoration and collective memory that have
relevance in the discussion of the role of pilgrimage
and its influence on Jerusalem. Furthermore, the-
ories of landscape, territories, and the formation
of the nation state are included. Other secondary
texts deal directly with Jerusalem through the
lens of the Israeli occupation and provide vital
information on archeology and politics.
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the Practice of Archaeology, and the Remaking of
Past and Present in Contemporary Jerusalem.”
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Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli
Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001)
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Archaeology and Power during the British Mandate
of Palestine.” Israel Studies 7, no. 2 (2002), 33-61
Agamben, Giorgio, The Signature of All Things
(Boston: MIT Press, 2009)
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Implementation Guidelines, Journal of
Architectural Conservation, 6 (3) (2000)
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Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism,
(New York: Verso, 1991)
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Journal of Psychiatry, (2000) volume 176, 86-90
Barkan, E., and R. Bush, eds. Claiming the Stones,
Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the
Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity (Los
Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2002)
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analogies are generated: The roles of structural and
superficial similarity”, Memory and Cognition 28
(2000), 108-124
Brandi, Cesare, “The Concept of Restoration,” in
A Theory of Restoration, trans. Cynthia Rockwell
(Rome: Nardini/Istituto Centrale per il Restauro,
2005)
152
Carruthers, M., The Book of Memory: A Study of
Memory in Medieval Culture (Cambridge 1990)
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fiction and the invention of a scientific discourse
in early modern Europe’, in IDEM: Travellers and
cosmographers. Studies in the history of early
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(1980), 322-41
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Studies 40 (2001), 487-500
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Religion and Spiritual Journeys, (London and New
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UNESCO, World Heritage, and Tourism (Lexington
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the Sacred: the Anthropology of Pilgrimage.
(Champaign, University of Illinois Press, 1991)
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Worship: Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage (Brill,
1995)
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between the Wars (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
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Evans, G., “Living in a World Heritage City:
stakeholders in the dialectic of the universal and
particular” In International Journal for Heritage
Studies 8(2), (2002)
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to accompany an exhibition of the same name,
(Berlin: KW-Institute for Contemporary Art, 2003)
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the History and Theory of Response (Chicago and
London: University of Chicago Press, 1989)
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Politics of National Identity (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1994)
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1919-1941 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007)
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trans., Lewis A. Coser, (Chicago and London: The
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(London: Ashgate, 2011)
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(London: Routledge, 2012)
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(London: Routledge, 1992)
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Relationships between Humans and Things (Malden,
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Palestine: Dual-Purpose Historical Evidence”,
Imago Mundi 22 (1968)
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(Palgrave Macmillan, 1973)
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Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and
Sites (The Venice Charter 1964) (Paris: ICOMOS,
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Jackson, J. B., Discovering the Vernacular
Landscape, (Yale University Press, 1986)
Janelle, Pierre, The Catholic Reformation
(Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1949)
Jose Eduardo de Andrade Chemin Filho, Pilgrimage
in a Secular: Age Religious & Consumer Landscapes
of Late-Modernity (PhD dissertation manuscript,
2011) Tweed, Thomas, Crossing and Dwelling: a Theory
Koolhaas, Rem, “Preservation Is Overtaking Us,”
Future Anterior 1, No. 2 (2004)
Kingsley, Porter, “Pilgrimage Sculpture,” in
American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 1
(Jan. — Mar., 1922), 1-53
Knott, K., “Spatial Theory and Method for the
Study of Religion,” in Temenos, Issue 41 (2) (2005),
153-184
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Some Guides to the American Scene (1979)
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(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985)
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The Use of Analogies and Heuristics in Teaching
Introductory Statistical Methods”, Journal of
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Marx, Karl, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy,
Volume I: The Process of Production of Capital,
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Moore and Edward Aveling, ed. Frederick Engels
(Marx/Engels Internet Archive, 1995, 1999)
Mewshaw, Michael: “Travel, Travel Writing, and
the Literature of Travel” in South Central Review,
Vol. 22, No. 2 (The Johns Hopkins University Press,
Summer, 2005), 2-10
Mitchell, W.J.T, ed., Landscape and Power
(University of Chicago Press, 2002)
Mitchell, W.J.T, “Space, Place and Landscape”,
in Territories, ed. Anslem Franke (Berlin: KW-
Institute for Contemporary Art, 2003), 170
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Jerusalem in Islam” in n City of the Great King:
Jerusalem from David to the Present ed Nitza
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Diane Ghirardo and Joan Ockman (Camrbdige: MIT
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Lamps of Architecture (New York: Farrar, Straus and
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Chatto & Windus, 1993)
Said, Edward, Orientalism (New York: Vintage
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INTRODUCTION
1. Water from the Holy Land in Santo Stefano
Church‭ ‬ in Bologna‭, ‬known as the local
Jerusalem‭. ‬Photo by the author‭, ‬2018
2. Installation of the exhibition New
Topographics‭: ‬Photographs‭ ‬of a Man-Altered
Landscape‭ (‬1975‭) ‬
3. Stephen Shore‭, ‬Holden Street, North Adams,
Massachusetts, July 13, 1974
4. Entry court to the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre‭, ‬Jerusalem‭. ‬Photo by the author‭,
‬2020
5. ‭ ‬Church of the Holy Sepulchre of Cambridge.
Photo by the author‭, ‬2019
6. Easter Friday procession at the‭ ‬“New
Jerusalem”‭ ‬in Varallo‭, ‬Italy‭. ‬Photo by the
author‭, ‬2019
CHAPTER ONE
1. ‬ bove‭: ‬Constantine’s Church of Eleona on
A
Olive Mount. Below‭: ‬Constantine’s Church of
the Nativity in Bethlehem. Source: Wilkinson‭,
John, ‬Egeria’s Travels‭, (‬Oxford‭: ‬Oxford Books‭,
‬1999‭), ‬47-51
2. Jerusalem during the Constantinian conver-
sion‭, ‬drawing by the author
3. Eusebius’‭ ‬description of the church on
Golgotha‭ ‬. Drawing by the author‭, ‬after
Wilkinson, ‬Egeria’s Travels‭, ‬21‭. ‬
4. Places of pilgrimage in fourth-century
Palestine. Source: Wilkinson‭, ‬Egeria’s
Travels‭, ‬17
5. ‭‬Egeria’s approach to Sinai‭. Source:
Wilkinson, ‬Egeria’s Travels‭, ‬92
6. Constantine’s buildings on Golgotha in the
time of Egeria. Source: Wilkinson‭, Egeria’s
Travels‭, ‬45
7. ‬Map of the central liturgical sites in Christian
Jerusalem in the fourth century AD‭ (‬not to
scale‭) ‬Below: ‬Chart of the stations for the
Christian liturgy in Jerusalem in the fourth
century. Source: Smith‭, Jonathan, ‬To Take
Place,‭‬92
CHAPTER TWO
1. Eusebius’‭ ‬description of the church on
Golgotha. Drawing by the author‭, ‬after ‬John‭
Wilkinson‭. Source: Wilkinson, ‬Egeria’s
Travels‭, ‬21
2. Constantine’s Basilica on Golgotha‭,
‬reconstruction by Richard Krautheimer.‭
Source: Krautheimer, Richard,“The
Constantinian Basilica,” in Dumbarton Oaks
Papers 21 (1976)
3. Elevation of the Anastasis Rotunda‭. Source:
Conant, ‬Kenneth John,‬“‬The Original
Buildings at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem”‭
Speculum‭, V ‬ ol‭. ‬31‭, ‬No‭. ‬1‭ (‬Jan‭., ‬1956‭)‬
4. From left‭: ‬St‭. ‬Michael’s Church‭, ‬Fulda‭ (‬820‭
‬AD‭); ‬Holy Sepulchre‭, ‬Northampton‭ ‭(‬1100‭ ‬AD‭);
‬Neuvy-Saint-Sépulchre‭ (‬1049‭ ‬AD) Church of
the Holy Sepulchre‭, ‬Cambridge‭ (‬1130‭ ‬AD‭),
‬Santo Stefano‭, ‬Bologna‭ (‬1141‭ ‬AD‭), ‬Temple
Church‭, ‬London‭ (‬1185‭ ‬AD‭). All drawings by
the author‭, ‬not to scale‭. ‬
5. Plan of Santo Stefano‭. Drawing by the author,
after Robert Ousterhout. Source: Ousterhout,
Robert, “The Church of Santo Stefano: A
‘Jerusalem’ in Bologna”, Gesta 20, No. 2
(1981), 3
6. ‭‬Bologna‭, ‬plan‭, ‬detail showing the
relationship between‭ ‬‭ (‬1‭) ‬Santo Stefano‭, (‬2‭)
‬former location of S‭. ‬Tecla‭, (‬3‭) ‬S‭. ‬Giovanni
in Monte. Source: Ousterhout‭, ‬The Church of
Santo Stefano‭, 316
7. Detail of Santo Stefano‭, ‬Bologna ca‭. ‬12th
Century‭ (‬above‭)‬ vs‭. ‬Church of the Holy
Sepulchre ca‭. ‬1048‭ ‬AD‭ ‬ Drawings‭ (‬not to scale‭)
‬b y the author‭, ‬after ‬Ousterhout and Vincent‭
and Abel. Source: Ousterhout‭, ‬The Church of
Santo Stefano‭, 312
8. ‬Temple Mount‭ (‬Haram El-Sharif‭) ‬Drawing by
the author.
9. ‭Jerusalem as the capital of the Latin Kingdom
of Jersalem 1099-108. Drawing by the author.
Source: Wharton, Annabel, Selling Jerusalem
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
10. Precinct of the New Temple‭, ‬London‭, ‬ca‭.
‬1250‭. Drawing by the author‭, ‬after Helen J‭.
‬Nicholson‭.
11. Floor plan of the Temple Church‭, ‬London‭.
Drawing by the author‭, ‬after Illustrations
of the architectural Ornaments and
Embellishments and Painted Glass of the
Temple Church‭, (‬London‭, ‬1845‭) ‬
12. Section‭, ‬Temple Church‭, ‬London‭, ‬From‭
‬Illustrations of the Architectural Ornaments
and Embellishments and Painted glass of the
Temple Church‭, (‬London‭, ‬1845‭) ‬
13. ‬Seal of the Knights Templar‬—‫‮‬Dome of the
Rock‭, ‬the Holy‭ ‬Sepulcher‭, ‬or the Temple of
Solomon. Source: Archer, Thomas Andrew,
The crusades; the story of the Latin kingdom of
Jerusalem, 176
14. Left‭: ‬Temple of the Lord or Mosque Dome
of the Rock. Right‭: ‬Temple of Solomon or‭ ‬Al
Aqsa Mosque. Drawings by the author‭ ‬
15. San Bernardino in Urbino by Francesco di
Giorgio ‭(‬1482-1491‭)‬ Source: Wikimedia
Commons
16. Temple Church of the Knights Templars‭ (‬1185‭
‬AD‭) ‬Inns of Court‭, ‬City of London‭. ‬Photo by
the author‭, ‬2019
CHAPTER THREE
1. Easter Friday procession in the Sacro Monte
di Varallo‭. ‬Photo by the author‭, ‬2019
2. The Station of the Cross‭ [‬in two parts‭]
‬according to Giovanni Zuallardo‭. Source:
‬Zuallardo‭, ‬Giovanni‭. ‬Devotissimo Viaggio Di
Gerusalemme‭ (‬1587‭) ‬
3. ‭A series of distinct locations‭, ‬connected with
a path and‭ ‬annotated with meditations‭. ‬Map
of Palestine by William Wey‭ (‬c.1458-1463‭)
Source: B ‬ odleian Library‭, ‬Oxford
4. ‭A page from‭ ‬The Itineraries of William Wey,‭ a
fellow of Eton College to Jerusalem, A.D. 1458
and A.D. 1462‭ showing the fourteen Stations
of the Cross‭: ‬Loca Sancta in Stacionibus
Jerusalem‭, ‬as a separate ritual from the rest
of the Holy Places of Jerusalem‭ (‬composed of
fourteen locations‭), The Itineraries of William
Wey,‭a fellow of Eton College to Jerusalem,
A.D. 1458 and A.D. 1462‭. Source: the original
manuscript in the Bodleian library, Oxford
5. Enrico di Tedice‭, ‬Painted Cross‭, ‬ca‭. ‬1245-55‭
AD. ‬Pisa‭, ‬S‭. ‬Martino‭. Source: Derbes, Anne,‭
‬Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy:
Narrative painting, Franciscan Ideologies and
the Levant‭(‬Cambridge‭: ‬Cambridge University‭
‬Press‭, ‬1996‭), ‬6
6. ‭‬The Manger or Crib at Greccio‭, ‬Giotto‭
‬[‬debatable‭] ‬(1297‭- ‬1300)‭ ‬AD‭ ‬Upper Basilica
of San Francesco‭, ‬Perugia‭, ‬Assisi‭.‬ Source:
Wikimedia Commons
7. ‭Sacro Monte di Varallo‭, ‬ca‭. ‬1500‭. Drawing
153
 by the author‭ ‬after‭Galeazzo Alessi. Source:
Alessi, Galeazzo, ‬Libro Dei Misteri (1565-
1569) from the National Arts Library, Victoria
and Albert Museum, London
8. ‬Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre (‬1491‭) ‬b y
Gaudenzio Ferrari, with a photo showcasing
the original tomb in Jerusalem‭. ‬Photo by the
author‭, ‬2018
9. The Procession of the Magi‭, ‬the Bethlehem
Complex‭ (‬1515‭) ‬b y Gaudenzio Ferrari. Photo
by the author‭, ‬2019
10. ‭‬Christ on the Cross‭, ‬Calvary Chapel‭ (‬detail
above‭), Gaudenzio Ferrari‭ (‬1510‭, ‬1519-1520‭).
Source: Filippis E‭., ‬Gaudenzio Ferrari, La
Crocifissione del Sacro Monte di Varallo‭
(‬Torino‭: ‬Archivi di Arte e Cultura Piemontesi‭,
‬2006‭)‬
11. Details‭ (‬from left‭): ‬The Guitrous tormenting
Jew‭, ‬the Roman Soldiers‭, ‬and Mary swoons to
her companions‭. ‬Calvary Chapel‭, ‬Gaudenzio
Ferrari‭ (‬1510‭, ‬1519-1520‭) Source: Filippis E‭.,
‬Gaudenzio Ferrari, La Crocifissione del Sacro
Monte di Varallo‭ (‬Torino‭: ‬Archivi di Arte e
Cultura Piemontesi‭, ‬2006‭)‬
12. Caravaggio‭, ‬Deposition‭ (‬or Entombment‭), ‬c‭.
‬1600-04‭, (‬Pinacoteca Vaticana‭, ‬Vatican City‭‬.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
13. The clear separation between the space of
the pilgrim and that‭ ‬of the figures‭, ‬as well as
the‭ ‬“ Vetriate”‭ ‬through which viewing takes
place‭. ‬Chapel of the Original Sin‭, ‬Galeazzo
Alessi‭. Source: Alessi, Galeazzo, Libro Dei
Misteri (1565-1569) from the National Arts
Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
14. Jesus is Nailed to the Cross‭, ‬Giovanni d’Enrico‭
(‬1599‭)‬,‭ ‬looking through the Vitriate‭. ‬Photo by
the author‭, ‬2018
15. Drawing of the Chapel of the Temptation
of Christ‭, Galeazzo Alessi‭. ‬Source: Alessi,
Galeazzo, ‬‬‬Libro Dei Misteri (1565-1569) from
the National Arts Library, Victoria and Albert
Museum, London
16. Sacro Monte di Varallo‭ (‬ca‭. ‬1564‭), ‬drawing by
the author
17. Sacro Monte di Varallo. Photo by the author‭,
‬2018
18. Sacro Monte di Varallo. Photo by the author‭,
‬2018
19. ‭‬Sacro Monte di Crea. Photo by the author‭,
‬2019
20. Sacro Monte di Varese‭. ‬Photo by the author‭,
‬2019
21. ‭Sacri Monti‭: ‬from a toponymic composition
to‭ ‬a linear order‭. ‬Drawings by the author‭.
22. Jerusalem‭, ‬plan‭. ‬Giovanni Cales’s illustration
for Vincenzo Favi‭, ‬Viaggio di Gerusalem‭
‬(1615)
23. Pilgrims carrying the Cross in the‭ ‬Via
Dolorosa‭,‬ ‬Jerusalem (‬1950). Source: BNA
Photographic / Alamy.
24. Tableux inside chapel IX‭ (‬chapel X in
reflection‭) ‬Sacro Monte di Varese‭. ‬Photo by
the author‭, ‬2019
25. Sacro Monte di Varese‭. ‬Photo by the author‭,
‬2019
CHAPTER FOUR
1. Home of the British Embassy‭ ‬and the
American Consulate‭. ‬Jerusalem‭, ‬ ca‭. ‬1900‭.
‬Source‭: ‬The Library of Congress/Matson
Collection‭ ‬
2. ‭‬Land parcellation and ownership in Hadera‭,
‬b y Max Shapiro‭ (‬1895‭) ‬From the Map
Archives‭, ‬Department of Geography‭, ‬The
Hebrew University‭, ‬Jerusalem‭. ‬Source‭: ‬Gavis
and Kark‭, ‬“Cadastral Mapping of Palestine‭,
‬1858-1928” ‬in The Geographical Journal‭,
‬March 1993‭, ‬Vol‭. ‬159‭, ‬figure 4
3. ‬The enclosed perimeter of the‭ ‬“Russian
Compound‭;‬”‭ ‬the parcellation of land is
clearly visible‭ ‬both within and outside the
walls‭ (‬1860s‭). ‬Source‭: ‬Michael Maslan/Getty
Images
4. Robinson’s Arch‭ (‬Arch of the Solomonian
bridge that linked Moria to Zion‭, ‬discovered
in 1838‭ ‬and still called by the same name‭)
‬projecting from the retaining walls of Temple
Mount‭. Source‭: ‬American Colony Jerusalem‭,
‬the Library of Congress
5. ‬Restoration of Robinson’s Arch by Ernest
Forrest‭, 1900-1920. ‬Source‭: ‬American Colony
Jerusalem, the Library of Congress
6. Plan of the Temple Mount by Ermete Pierotti
for the Palestine Exploration Fund‭, ‬showing
154
s‬ ubterranean water channels and cisterns‭
(‬1862‭). ‬Source‭: ‬PEF Archives‭ (‬PEF-MAP-6:5‭
‬33‭) ‬London
7. Map of Western Palestine‭, ‬Special Section
Illustrating the New Testament. By ‭‬Warren‭,
‬C‭. ‬and Conder‭, ‬C.R‭. ‬The Survey‭ ‬of Western
Palestine‭(‬1884‭)
8. Detail‭, ‬Map of Western Palestine‭, ‬Special
Section Illustrating the New Testament. By
‭‬Warren‭, ‬C‭. ‬and Conder‭, ‬C.R‭. ‬The Survey‭ ‬of
Western Palestine‭(‬1884‭)
9. Pilgrims carrying the cross on the‭ ‬Via
Dolorosa‭, ‬Jerusalem‭ ‬(‬ca‭. ‬1910‭). Source:
‬American Colony‭ ‬Photo Department‭/ Library
of Congress
10. Restoration of the Ecce Homo Arch and
Gabbatha by‭ ‬Ernest Forrest Beaumont‭
(1900-1920). Source: ‬American Colony‭ ‬Photo
Department‭/ Library of Congress
11. ‬Enclosure and development around the
discovered‭ ‬“Joab’s Well”‭ (1898-1914).
‬‬American Colony‭ ‬Photo Department‭/ Library
of Congress
12. ‬Excavations on Ophel‭, ‬showing rock-
hewn steps‭ ‬and‭ ‬foundations of a tower in
Siloam‭ (ca‭. ‬1900)‭. ‬‬American Colony‭ ‬Photo
Department‭/ Library of Congress
13. ‬Map of the area around Skull Hill and the
Garden Tomb‭ ‬property in the 1880s‭. ‬Source‭:
‬“Plan showing position of the two churches
north of Damascus Gate”‭, ‬traced from O‭.
‬S‭. ‬plan and additions by G‭. ‬A‭. ‬E‭. ‬Wellerlith‭
(‬1885‭, ‬79‭)‬
14. Gordon’s Calvary‭ (‬left enclosure‭) ‬and Skull
Hill‭ (‬centre‭), ‬with the Muslim Cemetery
perched above‭. ‬Source‭: ‬American Colony‭
(‬Jerusalem‭), ‬Photo Department
15. Easter morning at the Garden Tomb‭ (‬1939‭)‬
Source‭: ‬American Colony‭ (‬Jerusalem‭), ‬Photo
Department
16. The Garden Tomb in 2020‭. ‬Photo by the
author
17. Map of Cook’s Palestine tour from 1873‭,
‬showing the fixed itinerary through the‭
‬principal points of interest‭. ‬Source‭: ‬Thomas
Cook Archive
18. ‬State visit to Jerusalem of Wilhelm II of
Germany in 1898‭, ‬Visiting Tomb of Kings‭.
‬Source‭: ‬Library of Congress
19. The camp set up by Thomas Cook for the state
of Wilhelm II of Germany in 1898‭. ‬Source‭:
‬Library of Congress
20. Thomas Cook and Sons’ office by the Jaffa
Gate‭, (ca‭. ‬1903‭ ‬Source): ‬Thomas Cook Archive
21. A group of Cook’s Tours leaving the
Encampment in Jerusalem’s outskirts‭ (‬1877‭)
‬Source‭: ‬Nineteenth-Century Holy Land
Pilgrimage Collection‭, ‬Yoel Amir‭ ‬
22. ‬Jerusalem railways station‭, ‬inaugurated in
1892‭. Source‭: ‬American Colony‭ (‬Jerusalem‭),
‬Photo Department‭, ‬Library of Congress
23. ‭ ‬Fig 23‭: ‬Jaffa Road‭ (‬1907-1914‭). Signs‬–‫‮‬
read on left side of street‭: ‬“G‭. ‬Krikorian
Photographie”‭ ‬and‭ ‬“P.A‭. ‬Hallac‭and Co”‭; on
right side of street‭: ‬“G‭. ‬Raad Photographie”‭
‬and‭ ‬“Phot‭. ‬Savvides”‭.‬ Source‭: ‬American
Colony‭ (‬Jerusalem‭), ‬Photo Department‭,
‬Library of Congress
24. Spiridon’s tourist map from the 1930s‭.
‬Source‭: ‬the National Library of Israel‭ ‬
25. Covers of nineteenth-century travelogues to
Palestine‭. ‬Source‭: ‬Archive.org‭, ‬collage by the
author
26. Jerusalem from the south‭ (‬American Colony
Photographers, 1898-1907)
27. Allenby‭, ‬Storrs‭, ‬and Ashbee on Temple
Mount. Source: Archive Centre, King’s
College, Cambridge, England, Courtesy Nirit
Shalev Khalifa, Yad Ben-Zvi, ‬Jerusalem
28. Logo of The Pro-Jerusalem Society‭. Source:
Archive Centre, King’s College, Cambridge,
England, Courtesy Nirit Shalev Khalifa, Yad
Ben-Zvi, ‬Jerusalem
29. ‬A view inside the Old City between 1900-1914;
wooden balconies projecting from the stone
walls‭. ‬ Source‭: ‬American Colony‭ (‬Jerusalem‭).
‬Photo Department‭
30. “Jerusalem Park System” by Patrick Geddes
and C.R Ashbee‭ (‬1920‭)‬ ‬in Ashbee‭, ‬Charles
Robert‭,‬ ‬ed‭. ‬Jerusalem, 1918–1920, being
the records of the pro-Jerusalem council
during the period of the British military
administration ‭(‬London‭: ‬Murray‭, ‬1921‭)‬
31. ‬Ashbee commenting on the unsightly use of
materials‭ ‬and the risk of using anything but
stone‭, ‬1918‭. ‬Source: Archive Centre, King’s
College, Cambridge, England, Courtesy Nirit
Shalev Khalifa, Yad Ben-Zvi, ‬Jerusalem
32. The Rampart walk ca‭. ‬1923‭ ‬Source‭: ‬American
Colony‭ ‬‭(‬Jerusalem‭), ‬Photo Department
33. ‭Above‭: ‬“Modern encroachments that the
Society is clearing” Below‭: ‬Key Plan of the
Rampart Walk‭ ‬in Ashbee‭, ‬Charles Robert‭,‬ ‬ed‭.
Jerusalem, 1918–1920, being the records of
the pro-Jerusalem council during the period of
the British military administration ‭‭(‬London‭:
‬Murray‭, ‬1921‭)‬
34. Jaffa Gate ca‭. ‬1910‭, ‬with the Ottoman
clocktower visible‭, ‬as well as other shops‭,
‬stalls and carriages bringing pilgrims from
the Port of Jaffa‭. Source: Israel Antiquity
Authority
35. Detail from the notebooks of C.R‭. ‬Ashbee
for the perimiter of the Old City Walls‭ (‬left‭)
‬‬Source: Archive Centre, King’s College,
Cambridge, England, Courtesy Nirit Shalev
Khalifa, Yad Ben-Zvi, ‬Jerusalem. View from
the Rampart Walk in 2020‭ (‬right‭)‬ photo by
the author
36. ‬‭Above‭: ‬“The Jaffa Gate at present‭, ‬looking
towards the city‭.‬”‭ ‬Below‭, ‬“The same‭, ‬as
suggested when the unsightly obstructions
that hide the wall line are cleared away‭”
in‭ Ashbee‭, ‬Charles Robert‭,‬ ‬ed‭. ‬Jerusalem,
1918–1920, being the records of the pro-
Jerusalem council during the period of the
British military administration ‭‭ ‭(‬London‭:
‬Murray‭, ‬1921‭)‬, figures ‬44‭, 45‭
37. Demolition of the shops around Jaffa Gate
to clear the wall‭ (‬1944‭)‬ Source: Library of
Congress‭/ American Colony, Jerusalem
38. Damascus gate in 1898. Source: Library of
Congress‭/ American Colony, Jerusalem
39. Damascus gate in 2020, photo by the author
40. Jerusalem‭, ‬looking tow ards the Jaffa
gate from the Ramparts Walk‭. Photo by the
author‭, ‬2020
CHAPTER FIVE
1. Folio in the Villers Miscellany‭, ‬ca‭. ‬1320,
showing The measured wound of Christ
incorporated into a word-image design (‬left‭),
with a textual description of the associated
indulgences‭ (‬right‭). ‬Source: Koninklijke
Bibliotheek Albert I‭, ‬Ms‭. ‬4459‬–‫‮‬70‭. ‬In Rudy,
Kathryn, Rubrics, Images and Indulgences
in late Medieval Netherlandish Manuscripts,
(Leiden: Brill, 2017)
2. ‬“‬Rock Upon Which Jesus Leaned‭,” ‬R.E.M
Bein‭ (1894‭) [‬Matt‭: ‬xxvi‭: ‬36‭‬‭] Source: Vincent,
Bishop John H.; Rev. James W. Lee, Earthly
Footsteps of the Man of Galilee: being original
photographic views and descriptions of the
places connected with the earthly life of our
Lord and His Apostles, traced with notebook
and camera (N. D. Thompson Publishing Co. /
News of the World, London, England, 1894)
3. “The Valley of Ajalon--Where Joshua
commanded the sun and moon to stand still‭,”
‬R.E.M Bein‭ (‬1894‭) [‬Joshua‭, ‬x:12]‬. Source:
Vincent, Bishop John H.; Rev. James W. Lee,
Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee: being
original photographic views and descriptions
of the places connected with the earthly life
of our Lord and His Apostles, traced with
notebook and camera (N. D. Thompson
Publishing Co. / News of the World, London,
England, 1894)
4. Allan Sekula‭, ‬“Aerospace Folktales”‭(1973) ‬in‭
Sekula‭, ‬Allan‭, ‬Photography Against the Grain:
Essays and Photo Works, 1973-1983 ‭(‬Mack‭,
‬2016‭)‬, ‬114-115
5. Allan Sekula‭, ‬“Aerospace Folktales” (1973)‭ ‬in‭
Sekula‭, ‬Allan‭, ‬ ‬Photography Against the Grain:
Essays and Photo Works, 1973-1983 ‭(‬Mack‭,
‬2016‭)‬, ‬130-131
6. ‬Robert Smithson‭, ‬“A Tour of the Monuments
of Passaic” ‭(‬detail‭), in‭ ‬Artforum‭(‬December
1967)‭, ‬52-57
7. Dan Graham‭, “‬Homes for America” ‭in Arts
Magazine (‬1966-7‭)‬
8. Edward Ruscha‭, ‬Twentysix Gasoline Stations‭
(‬1963‭)‬
9. Walker Evans‭, ‬Houses‭, ‬Atlanta‭, ‬Georgia‭ (‬1936‭)
‬Farm Security Administration‭- ‬Office of War
Information‭. Source: Library of Congress