Immovable Ladder

The ladder rests on a ledge and is attached to the right window of the second tier of the facade, owned by the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Virtually all Christian denominations participated in these conflicts, but Catholics and Greek Orthodox Christians—the most numerous, wealthy, and influential communities—were particularly hostile to each other.

In 1719, the Franciscans achieved a diplomatic victory,[3] as a special decree from the Sultan allowed them to independently, without the involvement of other Christian denominations, carry out restoration work in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Perhaps the oldest depiction of the ladder is in an engraving by the Franciscan monk Elzear Horn, dated by the Custody of the Holy Land to 1728.

[5] However, Israeli writer Amos Elon claimed in his 1995 book[6] that the ladder belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church and must remain in place due to the strict adherence to the "Status Quo".

To access the areas behind the windows of the second tier, one needed to pass through the territory belonging to the Greek Church, which could sometimes be impossible.

This is reached from the windows of the Armenian Chapel of St. John, and this Community has the use thereof on the occasion of the festival ceremonies that take place in the Courtyard.

[17] In 1757, the Franciscans began constructing their altar in front of the Aedicula richly decorated with gifts received from various European countries.

On Easter 1757, a crowd of Greeks, incited by Orthodox monks, stormed the church to prevent the construction of the altar.

Greek hierarchs sent a report on this incident to Constantinople, accusing Catholics of "hidden hostility" towards the authorities of the Ottoman Empire.

Sultan Osman III, aiming to prevent unrest among the Orthodox population of the empire, issued a special decree, known as a firman, limiting the rights of Catholics to the sanctuaries in the Holy Land and transferred ownership of the Church of the Nativity and the Tomb of the Virgin Mary to the Greek Church.

Some sources claim that the acceptance of the 1757 firman was influenced by Grand Vizier Koca Ragıp Pasha, who allegedly received a large bribe from the Greeks.

During his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964, Pope Paul VI described the ladder as a visible symbol of Christian division.

[21] In 1997, the ladder was pulled in through the window and hidden behind an altar by a Protestant intending "to make a point of the silliness of the argument over whose ledge it is".