JERUSALEM GREAT MONASTERIES TOUR

Service Description

During this tour we’ll visit three absolutely unique Jerusalem monasteries - teo Catholic and one Greek. These monasteries have absorbed a unique history and fascinating destiny of Jerusalem. All three are active, and therefore you'll have a chance to feel a daily life of the monks in the XXI Century. We shall start the tour at our guests Jerusalem or Tel Aviv hotel. ​Monastery of the Cross at the Valley of the Cross This unique monastery stands in the valley of the Cross, just few hundred meters away from the Israel Museum and the Knesset (the Parliament). This unique monastery was initially built in the Byzantine period, during the 5th CAD and further expanded by Caesar Justinian in the 6th CAD. The monastery complex is hiding behind high medieval walls. The monastery church contains frescoes originally painted in the thirteenth century. The remains of the ancient pre-eighth century mosaic floor are preserved in the church. The traditions of the triplet tree of Abraham and Lot is remembered in the iconography of the monastery: a painting over the entrance door and in the Room of the Holy Tree. Pater Noster Carmelite Monastery at the Mount of Olives The Roman Catholic Church of the Pater Noster (Our Father) stands on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem alongside the ruins of the 4th century Church of Eleona which was commissioned by the Roman Emperor, Constantine I to commemorate the site of Christ’s ascension to heaven. Here is the cave where Jesus is believed to have taught his apostle the Lord’s Prayer. Today the walls of the convent church, cloisters and the surviving walls of the 4th century Eleona Church are covered with ceramic plaques engraved with the Lord’s Prayer in 140 languages. Visitation Church at Ein Kerem The Franciscan Visitation church in the village of Ein Kerem is named after Virgin Mary's visited to the summer house of the parents of John the Baptist, Zacharias and Elizabeth. According to tradition, it was here that Mary met her cousin Elizabeth and sang a hymn of praise (the Magnificat), a song of gratitude to God. The beautiful Church complex was initially built at the Byzantine times and was further repaired by the Crusades. The Upper Church on the second is richly decorated by the spectacular wall paintings. There is a mosaic on the wall of the church with a prayer from the New Testament, which appears in more than forty languages.