St. Peter in Gallicantu Church

Abstract

~The name of this church commemorates St. Peter's triple denial of Jesus before the "cock crowed twice" (Mark 14:30). The current church was built in the 1920s by the Catholic Assumptionists and consecrated in 1931. It was erected probably over the remains of an older Byzantine basilica dated from 457 AD and built by Empress Eudocia. It was destroyed by the Persians in 614 AD, and later rebuilt only to be destroyed again in the 10th century and yet again rebuilt by the Crusaders circa 1102, when it was given its current name of 'Peter In Gallicantu'. The Crusader church was again destroyed in 1330. Tradition suggests it stands over the house of the Roman-appointed Jewish High Priest Caiaphas. One of the grottoes in the church's crypt is called Jesus' Prison where, according to Christian belief, Jesus was questioned by Caiaphas before he was taken to trial in front of Pontius Pilate. In the garden of the church, ancient stone steps are visible. They are referred to as the Hashmonean Staircase and were probably built in that era (circa 167-63 BC). The staircase connected the residential district of the High City that extended north of Mount Zion and Kidron Valley