Cenacle

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For other meanings, see The Upper Room.

For the 19th century Parisian literary group see Cénacle.

Cenacle is the traditional Latin term for the Upper Room, or the site of The Last Supper. This word is a derivative of the Latin word "cena," which means dinner.

It allegedly lies in the second floor of a building on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, just outside the Dormition Church behind the Franciscan house on Sion, and south of the Zion Gate in the Old City walls. In the basement of the building is King David's Tomb.

[edit] History

In Christian tradition, this was the site where the apostles of Jesus received holy orders and became his first priests, and where they were praying when the Holy Spirit descended upon them on Pentecost. The building was spared during the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus (AD 70) and became the site of the first Christian church. It was later destroyed by Persian invaders and rebuilt by a monk called Modestus. During the Crusades, the building was razed to the ground by Muslims and replaced by the Crusaders with a basilica. Franciscan monks cared for the Cenacle from 1333 to 1552 when the Turks captured Jerusalem and banished all Christians.

After the Franciscan friars' eviction, this room was transformed into a mosque, as evidenced by the mihrab in the direction of Mecca and an Arabic inscription prohibiting public prayer at the site. Christians were not allowed to return until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Following a visit by Pope John Paul II, the Israeli government arranged for its ownership to be transferred to the Catholic Church in return for a church in Toledo, Spain which had originally been a synagogue.

[edit] Architecture

The Cenacle is divided by three pillars into three naves. The pillars and the arches, windows and other Gothic style architectural elements, a clear indication the room was built by the Crusaders in the early 13th century, on top of a much older structure. The older structure, according to the archaeological research, was the church-synagogue of the early Christian community of Jerusalem.