From the early centuries of Christianity, pilgrims have been drawn to walk the land where Jesus is believed to have spent his final days. The sites associated with the Passion are more than historical locations—they have long been regarded as charged spaces, where time, memory, and spiritual presence intersect.
This reverence for place began organically within the first Christian communities. For early pilgrims, traveling to Jerusalem was not simply geographic movement. It was a symbolic act of solidarity with suffering and a ritual of interior renewal. Walking in the footsteps of Jesus became a form of embodied remembrance.
Among the earliest and most detailed records of such journeys is the fourth-century diary of Egeria, a traveler from the Iberian Peninsula. Her account, rich in descriptions of liturgies and routes across the Holy Land, reveals a deep desire among early pilgrims to engage the Gospel narratives in situ.
Other voices from the same period—such as Jerome, who lived in Bethlehem, and Cyril of Jerusalem, whose catecheses referenced Passion sites—further attest to this emerging geography of devotion. It was also in the fourth century that Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, undertook her well-documented journey to Jerusalem. She identified key locations, including Calvary and the tomb later known as the Holy Sepulchre, and initiated the construction of monumental basilicas that would anchor these sites in the landscape of Christian pilgrimage.
Locating the Passion in Today’s Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city layered with history. Since the first century, it has been repeatedly conquered, destroyed, rebuilt, and reconfigured. Roman, Islamic, Crusader, Ottoman, and modern urban interventions have dramatically altered the city’s original topography.
These transformations complicate the task of identifying the precise locations mentioned in the Gospels. One example is the site of the trial before Pontius Pilate, long associated with the Antonia Fortress near today’s Ecce Homo Convent. However, recent archaeological consensus leans toward the Herodian Palace in another part of the city as a more likely location.
The complexity increases with the presence of overlapping sacred and civil structures. Many first-century remains now lie beneath layers of later churches, mosques, synagogues, and administrative buildings, limiting direct archaeological access.
Yet, even in the absence of definitive material evidence, centuries of liturgical continuity and collective memory have sustained the identification of key sites. The tradition, shaped by pilgrims and custodians over generations, forms a living map that continues to guide devotion and interpretation.
Key Locations in the Passion Narrative
The Passion sequence, as outlined in the canonical Gospels, begins at the Cenacle on Mount Zion, traditionally identified as the site of the Last Supper. This space is also linked with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
From there, Jesus moved to the Garden of Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives. The prayer grotto and the ancient olive trees create a solemn atmosphere, evoking the tension of that final night before arrest.
Following his detention, he was taken to the house of Caiaphas, identified in tradition with the site of today’s Church of Saint Peter in Gallicantu. Subterranean chambers beneath the church are believed to be places of confinement where Jesus may have been held.
The location of the trial before Pilate remains contested. While tradition places it at the Antonia Fortress, many scholars favor Herod’s Palace as a more historically plausible site. From one of these locations begins the Via Dolorosa, a route through the Old City that traces the path to Calvary. The fourteen stations along this path blend Gospel events with later devotional interpretations.
The final stages of the Passion are situated within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This complex structure incorporates the traditionally venerated sites of the crucifixion (Calvary or Golgotha), the Stone of Anointing—where Jesus’ body is said to have been prepared for burial—and the empty tomb, a focal point of pilgrimage since the fourth century.
A short distance away, atop the Mount of Olives, stands the traditional site of the Ascension. A small chapel marks the location associated with Jesus’ final departure from his followers.
The Via Dolorosa: Path of Devotion and Reflection
The Via Dolorosa as a formalized route emerged during the medieval period. It was shaped primarily by the efforts of the Franciscan order, who established a sequence of stations that came to represent a structured devotion still practiced today around the world.
While not all stations correspond directly to Gospel texts, their symbolic power remains significant. The path highlights universal human experiences: falling under weight, offering and receiving compassion, enduring humiliation, and facing death with dignity.
For many, walking the Via Dolorosa is not only a physical act but an internal process. It functions as a spiritual framework: to bear burdens, to falter and rise again, to witness and be witnessed. In this ritual movement, the Passion becomes less a distant narrative and more a mirror held to one’s own journey.
A Living Landscape of Pilgrimage
Today, as in centuries past, Jerusalem continues to draw pilgrims who seek more than archaeology or architecture. The city remains a living space of memory and encounter—one that hosts ongoing rituals of presence and remembrance.
Walking the Via Dolorosa, praying in Gethsemane, or standing before the Holy Sepulchre are not merely acts of historical curiosity. They are part of a continuous tradition shaped by countless individuals who, generation after generation, have turned their steps into a form of meaning-making.
Pilgrimage here is a dynamic gesture. It connects the tangible and the imagined, the ancient and the now. To journey through Jerusalem is to engage history with the body, to trace lines of hope with the eyes, and to carry forward a story that remains central to millions of lives across time and belief.
