Convent of the Sisters of Zion: The Ecce Homo Arch

Beneath a 19th-century convent on the Via Dolorosa, one of the most important lessons in Jerusalem archaeology is waiting. The Convent of the Sisters of Zion, also known as the Ecce Homo Convent, contains a massive Roman arch, an ancient stone pavement with soldiers’ game boards scratched into the surface, and a vast underground water cistern, all of which were believed for centuries to date from the time of Jesus. Modern archaeology has shown that they date from roughly a century later. The site is a powerful illustration of how Jerusalem’s traditions and its stones do not always tell the same story, and why both matter.

The Ratisbonne Brothers

The convent was founded by one of the most remarkable families in the history of Jewish-Christian relations. Théodore Ratisbonne (1802-1884) and his younger brother Alphonse (1814-1884) were born into a prominent Jewish banking family in Strasbourg. Théodore converted to Catholicism as a young man and was ordained a priest. Alphonse, initially hostile to his brother’s conversion, experienced what he described as a sudden and overwhelming vision of the Virgin Mary while visiting the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte in Rome on January 20, 1842. The event caused a sensation and was investigated and declared authentic by the Vatican. Alphonse was baptized and eventually ordained.

In 1843, Théodore founded the Congregation of Notre Dame de Sion (Our Lady of Zion), which received papal approval in 1847, with a mission rooted in the brothers’ own dual identity: to foster understanding and reconciliation between Christians and Jews. This was extraordinary for a 19th-century Catholic order. Today, the Sisters of Zion are recognized as pioneers of Jewish-Christian dialogue. In 1857, Alphonse Ratisbonne purchased the site on the Via Dolorosa, and between 1858 and 1862 he built the Basilica of Ecce Homo over part of the ancient Roman arch. An orphanage for girls and convent buildings followed, and the nuns gradually acquired surrounding properties. The convent has served ever since as both a guesthouse for pilgrims and an archaeological site of extraordinary importance.

The Ecce Homo Arch

The prominent stone arch spanning the Via Dolorosa at street level is one of the most recognizable landmarks on the route. Tradition held that this was the spot where Pontius Pilate presented Jesus to the crowd and declared “Ecce Homo,” “Behold the Man” (John 19:5). A larger section of the arch is visible inside the convent’s basilica. Archaeological research has established, however, that the arch is part of a Roman triumphal gateway erected by Emperor Hadrian around 135 CE, when he rebuilt Jerusalem as the pagan city of Aelia Capitolina after crushing the Bar Kokhba Revolt. The arch dates to approximately 100 years after the events of the Gospels and was not standing in Jesus’s time. It was originally a triple-arched gateway marking the entrance to Hadrian’s new city.

The Lithostrotos and the Game Boards

Below street level, visitors descend to a large stone pavement of massive flagstones known as the Lithostrotos. For generations, this pavement was identified as the Gabbatha, the Aramaic name given in the Gospel of John (19:13) for the courtyard where Pilate judged Jesus: “Pilate brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement, which in Aramaic is Gabbatha.” Scratched into the surface of the flagstones are game boards carved by Roman soldiers, grooves and markings for dice games sometimes called the Game of the King. These were connected to the Gospel accounts of soldiers casting lots for Jesus’s garments and mocking him as King of the Jews (Matthew 27:35).

Archaeological research, particularly the work of Father Pierre Benoit, has established that this pavement dates to Hadrian’s reconstruction of Jerusalem after 135 CE, not to the 1st century. The pavement is part of Hadrian’s eastern forum, built over the vaulted Struthion Pool below. The game boards were carved by soldiers of the Roman garrison stationed in Aelia Capitolina, not by the soldiers present at Jesus’s trial. The structures are genuinely ancient and deeply impressive, but they belong to a different chapter of Jerusalem’s history than the one tradition assigned to them.

The Struthion Pool

The deepest level of the site reveals the Struthion Pool (from the Greek for “sparrow”), a massive underground water cistern approximately 52 meters long and 14 meters wide. The pool was originally constructed during the Herodian period (late 1st century BCE) as an open-air rainwater reservoir and was later incorporated into the water system serving the Antonia Fortress, the Roman garrison overlooking the Temple Mount. Josephus mentions the Struthion Pool in connection with the Roman siege of the Antonia Fortress in 70 CE. When Hadrian rebuilt the city, the pool was vaulted over and the forum pavement was laid on top. Visitors today can walk along the edge of the pool, parts of which are still filled with water, and the sense of descending through the layers of Jerusalem, from a 19th-century convent to a 2nd-century pavement to a 1st-century-BCE cistern, is one of the most vivid experiences of the city’s archaeological depth.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

The Convent of the Sisters of Zion, located along the Via Dolorosa in the Muslim Quarter, preserves ancient stone pavement and a Roman arch that tradition connects to the trial of Jesus. Your Hoshen Tours guide will take you underground to see the Lithostrotos and the Ecce Homo arch, then continue the walk to the nearby Pools of Bethesda just inside Lions’ Gate. A stop at the Austrian Hospice rooftop nearby rounds out an unforgettable exploration of this part of the Old City. Hoshen Tours often combines this site with Sephardic Synagogues, Deir es-Sultan, and Dung Gate for a memorable day exploring the region.