A long-lost altar dating from the times of the crusades was discovered hidden in plain sight by archaeologists at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem — one of the holiest sites in Christianity where Jesus is believed to have resurrected from the dead.
The stunning discovery was first made when construction workers overturned a massive stone slab leaning against a wall in the church that had been sitting there for an unknown amount of time, according to the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
The several-ton hunk of marble was in a publicly accessible corridor in the rear of the church and was even covered in graffiti.
The other side of the stone, however, was magnificently decorated and identified the slab as the front panel of the altar used by Crusaders in the middle ages from when it was consecrated in 1149 up until it vanished from history when a massive fire destroyed part of the church hundreds of years later.
“We know of pilgrim accounts from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries about a magnificent marble altar in Jerusalem,” said Ilya Berkovich, historian at the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
“In 1808, there was a major fire in the Romanesque part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” says Berkovich. “Since then, the Crusader’s altar was lost – at least that’s what people thought for a long time.”
The Austrian Academy of Sciences said the find was “sensational” as it begs the question how such an important relic could remain hidden from academics’ eyes in one of the most intensely researched buildings in Christianity.
“The fact that something so important could stand unrecognized in this of all places was completely unexpected for all concerned,” said Berkovich.
The unique ornamentation on the altar was in the “Cosmatesque” style, named after the Cosmati family in papal Rome, who passed their stoneworking skills down through several generations.
Cosmatesque art, which was a status symbol for the papacy, consisted of piecing small recycled pieces of marble scraped from other ancient buildings together to create complex geometric patterns, according to historians.
The only piece of Cosmatesque art still in existence outside of Italy is in the United Kingdom’s Westminster Abbey, where the pope had sent an artist.
Historians believe that the altar in Jerusalem was created with the pope’s blessing to honor Christianity’s holiest church and support Christianity’s claim to the city, which crusaders had conquered in 1099.
“The Pope thus paid tribute to the holiest church in Christianity,” Berkovich said.
The altar, at more than 11-feet long, is the largest medieval altar currently known, he said.
Berkovich and his team hope that additional research will reveal which Cosmatesque master was behind the work.