But a multi-year restoration project has made this underground labyrinth – built and rebuilt in several layers from the time of King Herod in the 1st Century to the Mamluk sultans in the medieval period – into a museum that tells not only the history of Jerusalem, but also the story of the Franciscan Order’s archaeological discoveries made throughout Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Jordan over the last century. For more than 100 years, Franciscan friars have carried out dozens of excavations at some of the region’s most famous Christian sites, including in Nazareth, Bethlehem and here in this sprawling Monastery of the Flagellation complex, which has been a pilgrimage site since at least the 4th Century.Past posts on the recently renovated Terra Sancta Museum are here and here. It is currently undertaking a phased reopening.
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