Ancient ladder forbidden movement sparks regular controversy holiest site for Christians in the world since the 4th century.
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Gps Coordinates / 31.7780695,35.2299189
Immovable Ladder Church Sepulchre Jerusalem Tourism VR Gps
Old City Saint Helena 10-14, Jerusalem
The so-called immovable ladder under the window of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, made of Lebanon cedar wood, was in place by 1728. The earliest photograph showing the ladder dates from the 1850s.
Gps Coordinates / 31.7781537,35.2298196
The immovable ladder has remained there ever since the 1757 status quo was established, aside from being temporarily moved twice. By the end of the 19th century, the ladder was being used to bring food to Armenian monks imprisoned by the Turks.
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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or Church of the Resurrection, is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is considered to be the holiest site for Christians in the world, as it has been the most important pilgrimage site for Christianity since the 4th century.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link 31.7779519 / Gps Link 31.7781551 / Gps Link 31.7781846
Gps Coordinates / 31.7779519,35.2294448 / 31.7781551,35.2297664 / 31.7781846,35.2297732
The ladder is referred to as immovable due to the agreement of the Status Quo that no cleric of the six ecumenical Christian orders may move, rearrange, or alter any property without the consent of the other five orders. Turkish accounts mention the ladder being used by Armenian monks to clean the windows above the ledge. The Byzantine cornice the ladder rests on has been used by the public during festivals.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link 31.7782623 / Gps Link 31.7783173 / Gps Link 31.7783411
Gps Coordinates / 31.7782623,35.2298085 / 31.7783173,35.2296061 / 31.7783411,35.2296567
During his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964, Pope Paul VI described the ladder as a visible symbol of Christian division. In 1997, the ladder was supposedly pulled in through the window and hidden behind an altar by a Protestant Christian intending "to make a point of the silliness of the argument over whose ledge it is." It was returned to the ledge weeks later, and a grate was installed in the window. In 2009, the ladder was placed against the left window for a short period before being moved back again.
Constantine ordered in about 326 that the temple to Jupiter/Venus be replaced by a church.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link 31.77834 / Gps Link 31.7783252 / Gps Link 31.7782683
Gps Coordinates / 31.77834,35.2297717 / 31.7783252,35.2298022 / 31.7782683,35.2298233
According to various accounts, the ladder once belonged to a mason who was doing restoration work in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor states that "the ladder was first introduced at a time when the Ottomans taxed Christian clergy every time they left and entered the Holy Sepulchre.
This building was destroyed by a fire in May of AD 614, when the Sassanid Empire, under Khosrau II, invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link 31.7782021 / Gps Link 31.7781019 / Gps Link 31.7781074
Gps Coordinates / 31.7782021,35.2298508 / 31.7781019,35.2299271 / 31.7781074,35.229986
The Catholics adapted by setting up quarters inside the church. O'Connor continues:- The window, ladder and ledge all belong to the Armenians. The ledge served as a balcony for the Armenian clergy resident in the Holy Sepulchre, and they reached it via the ladder. It was their only opportunity to get fresh air and sunshine. At one stage, apparently, they also grew fresh vegetables on the ledge.
The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link 31.7784252 / Gps Link 31.7781848 / Gps Link 31.7782383
Gps Coordinates / 31.7784252,35.2296066 / 31.7781848,35.2298707 / 31.7782383,35.22982
The earliest record of the ladder is in a 1728 engraving by Elzearius Horn. In 1757, the same year the Status Quo was introduced, Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid I mentioned the ladder in a firman, and because everything was to be left “as it was” according to the royal decree, the ladder had to stay as it was too. An 1842 lithograph by David Roberts also shows the ladder in place.
The purported tomb of Jesus
Link Location Gps / Gps Link 31.77825 / Gps Link 31.7782545 / Gps Link 31.7782483
Gps Coordinates / 31.77825,35.2298033 / 31.7782545,35.2298092 / 31.7782483,35.2298333
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. According to traditions dating back to the fourth century, it contains the two holiest sites in Christianity, the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he is believed by Christians to have been buried and resurrected.
The tomb is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicula.
Link Location Gps / Gps Link 31.7783939 / Gps Link 31.7782417 / Gps Link 31.7782659
Gps Coordinates / 31.7783939,35.2297999 / 31.7782417,35.2298217 / 31.7782659,35.2298323
Within the church proper are the last four stations of the Cross of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of the Passion of Jesus. The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage destination since its creation in the fourth century, as the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ, thus its original Greek name, Church of the Anastasis ('Resurrection').
Gps Coordinates / 31.7782016,35.2296293
Today, the wider complex around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre also serves as the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, while control of the church itself is shared, a simultaneum, among several Christian denominations and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for over 160 years, and some for much longer.
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Fist fights break out regularly here
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A relic chair is moved above the ladder on the rooftop and a fight ensues on the ground
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{youtube}https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBq5IH-pGvk{/youtube}
furniture movement is seen as sacrilege by many worshippers in this church
More fights, this one broke out in 2008, Greeks and Armenians reportedly having a fight over the holy fire practice
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{youtube}https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5REvrKaDQB8{/youtube}
Bruised up report afterwards between religious worshippers
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{youtube}https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91KdxdRpK6Y{/youtube}
Large broom fight breaks out and police start beating the priests with clubs as the priests fight back with clubs by the palestinian police, the Christians territory has been ruled by muslim territory, the priests likely prefer access to the outskirts of Jeruselum so its probable an agreed historical understanding from the 14th Ottoman rule. Both sides try and preserve its history which is why many fights break out as one side always believes they have been insulted with the other's lack of interpretation of history. Even moving furniture can get you clubbed by a worshipper without hesitation
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{youtube}https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn90BNz729k{/youtube}
