It took 18 months work and €600,000 to restore the
Basilica of Gethsemane back to its original splendour.
Restoration work
on the precious mosaics has finished and the 5000 pilgrims that visit
the Basilica of Agony in Jerusalem every year will once more be able to
linger amid the Church’s ancient aisles, their heads tilted backwards,
immersed in a nocturnal atmosphere, intensified by the dark blue starry
sky depicted on the mosaics which is framed by olive branches.
A number of countries contributed to the building
of the great Basilica with the 12 domes, designed by the architect
Antonio Barluzzi, hence it is also called Church of All Nations. The
basilica was finished in 1924 and has not undergone any restoration work
since.
This coupled with the fact that the signs of “ageing” were really
beginning to show on the Basilica’s domes, led the Custody of the Holy
Land to begin restoration work on what is one of Christianity’s most
important sites.
The Basilica is just a few steps away from the holy
garden which evokes that nocturnal scene on Holy Thursday when Jesus
suffered the moments of agony and abandonment the Lord had in store for
him.
“The Franciscans could have given the project to
foreign experts but they chose to invest in the training of young
Palestinians from the local area,” said Carla Benelli who heads the
cultural projects carried out by ATS pro Terra Sancta (www.proterrasancta.org).
ATS pro Terra Sancta is the Custody’s lay branch and the initiative’s
coordinating body. The six young people chosen are from the Mosaic
Centre in Jericho. Five of them are Muslims.
“Giving the project for the restoration of the
basilica by the Garden of Olives to a group of young Muslims (who
contributed to the restoration of two synagogues) was a challenging
task, but they feel grateful and proud to be participating in this
restoration project,” Benelli said.
But it is not just time that has left its mark on
the Basilica, recent history has too. The splendid mosaic depicting
Jesus as mediator between God and humanity that adorns the tympanum,
still has the marks of the bullets that hit the façade during the Six
Day War of 1967. The project receives the
support of the Palestinian Municipality Support Program of the Consulate
General of Italy in Jerusalem, the Municipality of Rovereto and
Italian foundation Opera Campana.
The Custodian of the Holy Land, Fr.
Pizzaballa, has underlined the importance and educational value of this
project on many occasions. Thanks to Jerusalem’s schools, more
than a thousand children between the ages of 8 and 12 have come to visit
the Church which was opened especially for them during closing hours
(12-14). Many did not know about this world heritage site, venerated by
more than one billion people. “When children go to school in the
morning, they see coaches lining up to let pilgrims off and ask
themselves: why there?”
So Franciscans thought to encourage school visits to
teach the young inheritors of this legacy a church that belongs to them
as well, to both Muslim and Christian children. “They are mostly
shocked to see that they live close to such a beautiful place, in the
heart of Eastern Jerusalem.” They would never have imagined it. At the
end of the tour, one young Muslim girl even asked the friars whether she
could come back with her parents.