Cenacle
While the term Cenacle refers only to the Upper Room, a niche located on the lower level of the same building is associated by tradition with the burial site of King David, marked by a large cenotaph-sarcophagus that dates to the 12th-century,[12] but earlier mentioned in the 10th-century Vita Constantini.
The early history of the Cenacle site is uncertain; scholars have attempted to establish a chronology based on archaeological, artistic and historical sources.
However, no architectural features associated with early synagogues such as columns, benches, or other accoutrements are present in the lower Tomb chamber.
[16] According to Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis writing towards the end of the 4th century, the building and its environs were spared during the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus (AD 70).
[18] The lowest courses of ashlars (building stones) along the north, east and south walls are attributed by Pinkerfeld to the late Roman period (135-325).
[20] Many scholars, however, date the walls' earliest construction to the Byzantine period and identify the Cenacle as the remains of a no-longer-extant Hagia Sion ("Holy Zion") basilica.
[24][25] After the First Crusade, the leader of the newly established Kingdom of Jerusalem, Godfrey of Bouillon, re-founded the church as a Latin abbey and in the twelfth century the basilica was rebuilt.
)[citation needed] Syrian Christians maintained the Cenacle until 1337 when it passed into the custody of the Franciscan Order of Friars who managed the structure for almost two centuries.
[27][28] In 1524, during Suleiman the Magnificent's rule, Ottoman authorities took possession of the Cenacle, converting it into a mosque: the Masjid an-Nabī (al-Nabī) Dāwūd (مسجد النبي داوود lit.
[30] Pilgrim Egeria, who visited the site in the 4th century, described the presence in the Cenacle of the Column of the Flagellation, which was venerated there at dawn on Good Friday.
Some believe that it was constructed by Crusaders just before Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem in 1187, while others attribute it to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, after he arrived in the city in 1229.
This capital's spiky leaves, which tightly adhere to the volume of the column before erupting into scrolls, are in congruence with common outputs of the 12th-century sculpture workshop at the Temple site in Jerusalem in the last years before Saladin's conquest in 1187.
There are also, however, similar capitals which originated in workshops in southern Italy, a draw for scholars who wish to associate the building with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and the Sixth Crusade in 1229.
Examples can be seen in the Romanesque cathedral in Bitonto, a small city near Bari, in southern Italy, and on the columns of the pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery, carved by the Apulian-born sculptor Nicola Pisano in 1260.
Architectural evidence remains of the period of Muslim control including the elaborate mihrab in the Last Supper room, the Arabic inscriptions on its walls, the qubba over the stairwell, and the minaret and dome atop the roof.
