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Canon Image Challenge | all galleries >> Challenges From The Past >> 2011 Challenges >> CIC 32 - Architectural Abstracts (Hosted by Michael Puff) >> Exhibition > Home
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23/12/2010 Traveller

Home

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Church of the Holy Sepulchre, from the Courtyard of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, I think. (I really thing that this is the roof of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church...but I'd need better maps than my excellent maps to determine this for sure. the churches and the right to a church here are all a jumble and fiercely contested).

And this I love...for its Solomonic flavor:
None of the (Christian) communities controls the main entrance. In 1192, Saladin assigned responsibility for it to two neighboring Muslim families. The Joudeh were entrusted with the key, and the Nusseibeh, who had been the custodians of the church since the days of Caliph Omar in 637, retained the position of keeping the door. This arrangement has persisted into modern times. Twice each day, a Joudeh family member brings the key to the door, which is locked and unlocked by a Nusseibeh.

Oh, heck, even some more fun with the history:

Establishment of the 1853 status quo did not halt the violence, which continues to break out every so often even in modern times. On a hot summer day in 2002, a Coptic monk moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians, and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fracas.[29]

In another incident in 2004 during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured.[30]

On Palm Sunday, in April 2008, a brawl broke out when a Greek monk was ejected from the building by a rival faction. Police were called to the scene but were also attacked by the enraged brawlers.[31] A clash erupted between Armenian and Greek monks on Sunday 9 November 2008, during celebrations for the Feast of the Holy Cross.
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Let me try this one more time...this is the Ethiopian Monastery, sitting atop the Chapel of St Helena, which was built by the Crusaders on 4th century walls and foundations. They were expelled here when unable to pay taxes to the Ottoman Empire in the 1600's and lost their position to the Copts, (of Egypt), and so they were forced to the roof which they have inhabited these almost 400 years.

Well, I'm glad I got that straight!


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Canon Image Challenge15-Jan-2011 04:03
from what i read here, the best part of this so-called holy place is your photograph! shu
Canon Image Challenge14-Jan-2011 01:36
The Abstraction is in the idea of Home...people think I'm being insulting by making the references that I do...but I am not....the place just knocked my socks off, (and I'm not a religious guy), but now I completely understand the....passions the place engenders.

Traveller
Guest 14-Jan-2011 01:11
After reading your notes, the holy nature of this place, it's history, and the social interactions of its caretakers may be the greatest abstraction of all. -Michael