Garo Nalbandian

Graceful vault of the “Ecce Homo” arch overlies Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa, outside the entrance to the Sisters of Zion convent. The arch marks the Second Station of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa, the traditional route Jesus followed from his imprisonment at the Praetorium to his crucifixion at Calvary. Pontius Pilate is said to have displayed the scourged Jesus to the crowd beneath this central arch, proclaiming: “Behold the Man” (Ecce Homo) (John 19:5). Archaeological evidence, however, demonstrates that this arch probably didn’t exist at the time of Jesus. Père Benoit dates the arch to the reign of Herod Agrippa (41–44 A.D.).