The Garden of Gethsemane
The Garden of Gethsemane,
Jerusalem
Gethsemane is an urban garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, most famous as the place where Jesus prayed and his disciples slept the night before his crucifixion – the site recorded as where the agony in the garden took place.
The Garden of Gethsemane became a focal site for early Christian pilgrims. It was visited in 333 by the anonymous ‘Pilgrim of Bordeaux’, whose Itinerarium Burdigalense is the earliest description left by a Christian traveller in the Holy Land. In his Onomasticon, Eusebius of Caesarea notes the site of Gethsemane located “at the foot of the Mount of Olives”, and he adds that "the faithful were accustomed to go there to pray”. Eight ancient olive trees growing in the Latin site of the garden maybe 900 years old.
In 1681 Croatian knights of the Holy Order of Jerusalem, Paul, Antun and James bought the Gethsemane Garden and donated it to the Franciscan community, who owns it until this day. A three-dimensional plate on the right side next to the entrance to the garden describes the aforementioned gift to the community.
Gethsemane appears in the Greek original of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Mark. The name is derived from the Aramaic meaning ‘oil press’. The Gospel of John says Jesus entered a garden with his disciples.