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The Monastery of the Cross is a historic monastery near the Nayot neighborhood in Jerusalem. It sits west of the Old City and south of the Knesset.
History
The Monastery of the Cross was built on the site of Lot’s tree. Christians believe the tree was used to make the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
The first church built on the site was commissioned by Constantine the Great in the 4th century. It was given to King Mirian III of Kartli in 327, after he adopted Christianity as the official religion of his kingdom. That church was destroyed by the Sassanids in 614. It was rebuilt and destroyed again in the early 11th century by Caliph Al-Hakim.
The current church was built in the middle of the 11th century by Giorgi-Prokhore of Shavsheti, a monk from Iberia (modern Georgia). It became one of the most important centers of Iberian monasticism in the Holy Land. There were over 100 monks, with scholars, scientists, and artists among them. Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli once lived there, and there’s a fresco of him on one of the columns in the church.
Due to heavy debts, the Georgians were forced to sell the monastery to the Greek Orthodox in 1685. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem administers the monastery to this day.
Lot’s Tree
A corridor on the left aisle of the church leads to an area behind the altar, where there’s a hole in the floor indicating the spot where Lot’s tree once stood. Also in the corridor is a crucifix that once stood over Golgotha in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
