Church of All Nations and Garden of Gethsemane

About Church of All Nations and Garden of Gethsemane

Catholic church in the Valley of Josaphat in Jerusalem, consecrated in 1924

The Church of All Nations, also called the Church of Gethsemane or the Basilica of the Agony, is a Catholic church at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Al-Quds, beside the Garden of Gethsemane. At the centre of its nave it enshrines a section of bedrock where, according to the Gospels, Jesus prayed on the night before his arrest; this is the "agony" of its Latin name. The present building was raised between 1919 and 1924 to a design by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi, paid for by twelve nations, hence the name. Each of its twelve domes carries the coat of arms of one donor country. It stands on the foundations of two earlier churches: a fourth-century Byzantine basilica destroyed by the earthquake of 746, and a small Crusader church of the twelfth century abandoned in the fourteenth. The outline of the Byzantine church is traced on the floor in black marble. From outside, the most striking feature is the facade, carried on a row of columns and topped by a large mosaic of Christ as the link between God and humanity. Next to the church lies the surviving part of the Garden of Gethsemane with its centuries-old olive trees, one of the most visited spots at the foot of the mount.

Where:

Jerusalem, Palestine