The Cosmatesque designs on the altar.Shai Halevi/Israel Antiquities Authority
Posted on 07/29/2024 8:42:27 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Teams of researchers have discovered a lost crusader altar in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, supposedly built on the site of Jesus's crucifixion in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
In a rear corridor of the church a stone slab daubed in graffiti weighing several tons had been leaning against a wall for an unknown period of time.
However, after it was turned around, it was found to be decorated beautiful ribbon ornaments which enabled its identification as the former front panel of the medieval Crusader altar, consecrated in 1149 and which seemed to have been lost after a fire in 1808...
Ilya Berkovich from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OAW), who conducted the research alongside the Israel Antiquities Authority said: "We know of pilgrimage reports from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries about a magnificent marble altar in Jerusalem.
"The fact that something so important could stand unrecognised in this of all places was completely unexpected for all concerned.
"In 1808, there was a major fire in the Romanesque part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Since then, the Crusader's altar was lost - at least that's what people thought for a long time."
...This procedure for marble decoration was practised exclusively by guild masters in papal Rome, who passed the skill down from generation to generation. For the Pope at the time, the Cosmatesque art was a cherished status symbol.
(Excerpt) Read more at gbnews.com ...
The Cosmatesque designs on the altar.Shai Halevi/Israel Antiquities Authority
Sounds very Indiana Jones-ish.................
Very cool.
Didn’t you cover this in early 2022?
I don’t think so... [FR search, rummaging around sounds] ah, 2022, marshmallow did. Looks like I’ve got another website to never use again. Thanks jjotto.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/religion/4056659/posts
For some reason, I had the story in a Times of Israel folder that I neglected to clean out.
Nice, still online too. Apparently the only change in the intervening two years has been they’ve cleaned the piece.
:^) In recent years (well, the past 20?) restoration work on the fresco has been completed.
:^) Whoops, wrong topic.
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