Chapel of the Ascension

About Chapel of the Ascension

Shrine in Jerusalem

The Chapel of the Ascension is a small shrine on the summit of the Mount of Olives in the At-Tur district of Al-Quds, about 830 metres above sea level and the highest built point in the city. Since the Byzantine period Christians have held this to be the spot from which Jesus ascended to Heaven forty days after the Resurrection, and the chapel houses a slab of stone said to bear the print of his right foot. The first shrine was built here around 380 CE around that venerated imprint, as part of a larger church and monastery. After Salah ad-Din's conquest of the city in 1187 the site became a Muslim shrine known as Zawiyat al-Adawiya, named after the celebrated ascetic Rabia al-Adawiya; the small octagonal domed chapel still stands in a walled courtyard beside the mosque. The place is therefore sacred to both Muslims and Christians, one of the few sites in the city where the two traditions share a single enclosure. The complex is really two adjacent sites: the Christian shrine of the Ascension in its octagonal edicule, and the neighbouring mosque built over an ancient grave. The architecture is modest, but the hilltop position makes it a natural starting point for the string of shrines that descend the Mount of Olives towards the Kidron Valley and the Old City.

Where:

Jerusalem, Palestine