The Catholic church and Laying Convictions Cross on the Via Dolorosa is behind the wall on which hangs a round sign with black Roman deuce. It means that there is the second station of the Cross - they are Christian pilgrims in the memory of the suffering of Jesus. At the second station, they remember how Christ laid the cross.

Tradition holds - it happened right here, next to the residence of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Modern archaeologists have argued, however, that Pretoria was to the south of the Jaffa Gate. Pilgrims are not confused: meditate on the cross entrusted to Jesus and to every Christian, it is possible everywhere.

The church is located on the territory of the Franciscan monastery of the Flagellation. On the Via Dolorosa seen its white dome - five of them under each stained glass windows illustrating the Passion of Christ. To get inside, you have to enter the cloister: the right is the Church of the Flagellation, and the left - Convictions and the laying of the Cross.

This small church was built in 1904 by the Franciscan architect Wendelin Hinterkoyzerom on the ruins of the chapel of the XIII century. The interior is decorated with pink marble columns and pilasters, as well as exquisite small Corinthian columns supporting the altar, tabernacle and pedestals for statues of Christ. But the main impression is created by the figures made of papier-mache in the spirit severofrantsuzskoy religious architecture.

The dramatic scene shows John, tried in vain to protect the sight of the Virgin Mary under the cross of Jesus hunched - it is a figure in the niche to the right of the altar. Altar image captures the Gospel episode, which is devoted to the church: Pilate washes his hands, and Jesus is preparing to take on the shoulders of the cross.

Word Lithostrotos on a sculpture of Christ in the niche left in Greek means paved area. In the New Testament the word occurs only once, in John: "... Pilate brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat at a place called Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha" (Jn 19:13). Found at the site Via Dolorosa Roman paving stones were mistakenly taken for the very Gabbatha. Studies have also shown that the stone slabs laid here in the II century - probably, they had paved the forum of the Roman city of Aelia Capitolina, built by Emperor Hadrian in the ruins of Jerusalem. So the ancient stones on the church floor to the left of the entrance - not those on which Jesus walked. But study them interesting, especially the one on which knocked out the line - whether the incisions made to the people and the horses do not slip, or a blank for the game.

Outside, on the west wall in the monastery garden, other archaeological finds are exhibited, as well as a small model of Jerusalem's Second Temple period. The monastery is the Faculty of Biblical Studies and Archaeology of the Pontifical University of St. Anthony - its specialists were a lot of excavations in the Holy Land. Here in the museum you can see the main artifacts found during these excavations in Nazareth, Capernaum, Judean Desert, in particular, the collection of coins, ceramics, oil lamps.