Jerusalem - Valley of the Cross - Monastry of the Cross
other names:
Monastry of Cross, Monastry of the Cross, Monastry of the Holly Cross, Church of Cross, Church of the Cross, Church of the Holly Cross, Emeq Matzleva, Emeq HaMatzleva, Emek Matzleva, Emek HaMatzleva, Valley of the Cross, Minzar haTzlav, Minzar haMatzleva, עמק המצלבה
Shota Rustaveli Alley, Museum Park
Before Italians came to Judea and Samaria, the people here never used cross for punishment.
Italians came to Jerusalem in 63 BCE. They brought with them brutality that was not known here before.
They put on cross rebels and escaping slaves in Jerusalem, as they did in every place they visited in Europe, Asia and Africa.
They took the trees for crosses from this place, the valley eastern to Ram Hill (Givat Ram).
Yeshua from Nazareth became the most famous man ever crucified by them. The man that ordered to put him on the cross was Italian - Pontius Pilatus. He did it not because he cared about the first commandment of the Jewish God, but because he had the filling that Yeshua will bring rebel in the Jewish Province (Judea and Samaria) and may be further.
Despite the impression that this torture made on the world, Yeshua from Nazareth was not the last Jew tortured by Italians, while Italians themselves became quite well because of this event.
Relevant links:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Salon/2385/pilate.html (deleted):
Pontius Pilatus - considering who this tough, practical and often brutal man was,
a hard-nosed pragmatist who did not hesitate to use torture,
murder and horrific executions to maintain control
in a land of simmering rebellion,
his final status as a saint in the Coptic Church is highly ironic.
Still, as the Nazis later said, he was just obeying orders
…
But most Romans regarded Christianity as both Jewish
and suspiciously seditious - everyone knew that its founder
had been crucified by the Roman authorities
and crucifixion was a punishment reserved for rebels and escaped slaves.
till 1990 the Monastery was surrounded by olive trees,
most of them burned in the great fire
The Monasrty was built by Armenians and Georgians, but now, the Greek flag is on the building. The Monastery of the Holy Cross is situated in the Valley of Cross, which is below Givat Ram (Ram Hill: the Israeli Museum, University and the Knesset).
It was built in the 6th century, but destroyed by the Persians in 614
and once again by Caliph Hakim in 1009.
The present building was rebuilt by Georgian and Armenian monks in the 11th century.
