Church of Saint Peter in Gallicantu is a Roman Catholic church located on the eastern slope of

Mount Zion Mount Zion ( he, הַר צִיּוֹן, ''Har Ṣīyyōn''; ar, جبل صهيون, ''Jabal Sahyoun'') is a hill in Jerusalem, located just outside the walls of the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City. The term Mount Zion has been used in the Hebrew ...

, just outside the walled

Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem ( he, הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, translit=ha-ir ha-atiqah; ar, البلدة القديمة, translit=al-Balda al-Qadimah; ) is a walled area in East Jerusalem. The Old City is traditionally divided into ...

. It is dedicated to the episode from the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

known as the

Denial of Peter The Denial of Peter (or Peter's Denial) refers to three acts of denial of Jesus by the Apostle Peter as described in all four Gospels of the New Testament. All four Canonical Gospels state that during Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples, he p ...

Etymology

The church takes its name from the Latin word "gallicantu", meaning cock's-crow.

Significance

The name has been given in commemoration of Peter's triple denial of being associated with Jesus during the night of his arrest ''"... before the cock crows twice"'' (), and has been introduced by the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

. This is believed to be the location of the palace of

Caiaphas Joseph ben Caiaphas (; c. 14 BC – c. 46 AD), known simply as Caiaphas (; grc-x-koine, Καϊάφας, Kaïáphas ) in the New Testament, was the Jewish high priest who, according to the gospels, organized a plot to kill Jesus. He famously p ...

, the Jewish

High Priest The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious caste. Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many gods rever ...

who sat in judgement over Jesus, where Peter's triple denial took place. According to the Pilgrim of Bordeaux in his

Itinerarium Burdigalense The ''Itinerarium Burdigalense'' ("Bordeaux Itinerary"), also known as the ''Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum'' ("Jerusalem Itinerary"), is the oldest known Christian ''itinerarium''. It was written by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", an anonymous pilgrim ...

, "...going up from the Pool of Siloe to

one would come across the House of the Priest Caiaphas."

History

A Byzantine shrine dedicated to Peter's repentance was erected on this spot in AD 457, but was destroyed by the

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dy ...

caliph

Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Abū ʿAlī Manṣūr (13 August 985 – 13 February 1021), better known by his regnal name al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh ( ar, الحاكم بأمر الله, lit=The Ruler by the Order of God), was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili ima ...

in 1010. The chapel was rebuilt by Crusaders in 1102 and given its present name. After the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, the church again fell into ruin and was not rebuilt until 1931. Today a golden

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

protrudes prominently from the sanctuary roof in honor of its biblical connection. The church belongs to the

Assumptionist Fathers The Assumptionists, officialy named the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption ( la, Congregatio Augustinianorum ab Assumptione) abbreviated AA,is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men (priests and b ...

, a French order established in 1887 and named for Mary's Assumption into heaven.

Layout and design

Upper church

The entrance to the church is from a parking lot located above the main level of the church. In the courtyard is a statue that depicts the events of the denial and include its main figures: the cock, the woman, and the Roman soldier. The inscription includes the biblical passage: ''But he denied him, saying "Woman, I know him not"!'' (). The entrance itself is flanked by wrought iron doors covered with biblical

bas relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

s. To the right are two Byzantine-era mosaics found during excavation, these were most likely part of the floor of the fifth-century shrine. The main sanctuary contains large, multi-colored mosaics portraying figures from the

. Facing the entrance is a bound Jesus being questioned at Caiaphas' palace; on the right Jesus and the disciples are shown dining at the

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

; and on the left Peter, considered the first

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, is pictured in ancient papal dress. Perhaps the most striking feature of the interior is the ceiling, which is dominated by a huge cross-shaped window designed in a variety of colors. The fourteen

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

line the walls and are marked with simple crosses.

Lower chapel

Beneath the upper church is a chapel which incorporates stone from ancient grottos inside its walls. Down a hole in the center of the sanctuary one can see caves that may have been part of the Byzantine shrine. These walls are engraved with crosses left by fifth-century

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

Ancient underground chambers

On an even lower level there is a succession of caves from the

Second Temple period The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted approximately 600 years (516 BCE - 70 CE), during which the Second Temple existed. It started with the return to Zion and the construction of the Second Temple, while it ended with the First Jewis ...

. Since tradition places the palace of Caiaphas on this site, many believe that Jesus may have been imprisoned in one of these underground crypts after his arrest; however, these caves were normal in many Roman-era homes, and often served as cellars, water

cisterns A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...

, and baths.

Ancient staircase

On the north side of the church is an ancient staircase that leads down towards the

Kidron Valley The Kidron Valley ( classical transliteration, ''Cedron'', from he, נחל קדרון, ''Naḥal Qidron'', literally Qidron River; also Qidron Valley) is the valley originating slightly northeast of the Old City of Jerusalem, which then separat ...

. This may have been a passage from the upper city to the lower city during the

First Temple period The history of ancient Israel and Judah begins in the Southern Levant during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. "Israel" as a people or tribal confederation (see Israelites) appears for the first time in the Merneptah Stele, an inscripti ...

. Many Christians believe that Jesus followed this path down to

Gethsemane Gethsemane () is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. It is a place of great resona ...

the night of his arrest.

Gallery

File:Sculpture of Jesus at Gallicantu Peter's Church.JPG, Sculpture of Jesus, which replicates the imprisoned Jesus File:Sacred Pit (dungeon), Gallicantu Peter's Church.JPG, Sacred Pit (dungeon) / caves (prison), where Jesus was allegedly kept File:Engraved art work at Gallicantu Peter's Church.JPG, Engraved art work on door ("I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me." Luke 22:34) File:Engraved work at Gallicantu Peter's Church.JPG, Jesus and the apostles after the Last Supper, modern relief above ancient staircase File:Chapel of Gallicantu Peter's Church.JPG, Altar in the chapel File:Byzantine Mosaic.JPG, Byzantine mosaic File:Art at Gallicantu Peter's Church.JPG, Art of Jesus and Peter File:Gallicantu Peter's Church.JPG, Church (corner view)

References

External links

Photos of the Church of Saint Peter in Gallicantu
at the

Manar al-Athar Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Em ...

photo archive {{Authority control St. Peter in Gallicantu Church buildings with domes Caiaphas Mount Zion