MOUNTAIN SION
South of the Old Town, Mount Zion rises to 765 m and boasts sites revered by both the Jewish and Christian religions. Here are the main sites to see on this emblematic mountain.
King David's tomb is a sacred site of Judaism and a place of pilgrimage for centuries. When access to the Wailing Wall was forbidden to Jews after the 1948 war, it was here that they came to pray.
The Cenacle is a highly symbolic place in Christianity, since Jesus is said to have shared his last meal with his disciples here. In 1335, the Franciscans erected a beautiful sanctuary with intersecting ribbed arches.
Next door is theemblematic Abbey of the Dormition, built in 1898 by the German Benedictine order on the presumed site of the Virgin Mary's death. Its circular interior is remarkable for its simplicity and beauty. In the crypt are the remains of the Byzantine church of Hagia Maria Sion and the Crusader church of Mount Sion.
In the Christian cemetery below, you can see the grave of Oskar Schindler (1908-1974), the Austrian industrialist who saved more than 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust, and to whom American director Steven Spielberg dedicated his film Schindler's List (1982).
On the eastern slope, the church of Saint-Pierre en Gallicante, a sanctuary of the Assumptionist Fathers, recalls the three denials of Peter. According to Catholic tradition, this church, built in 1931 over the ruins of a Byzantine edifice, houses the prison where Jesus was confined after his arrest.
L'église de la dormition est actuellement fermée pour rénovation.