Pilgrims retracing Jesus’ last steps may be going the wrong way

Thousands of pilgrims flocked to the walled Old City of Jerusalem on Good Friday, as part of the annual tradition to walk in the supposed footsteps of Jesus Christ.

But there’s an emerging theory that for the past few centuries, Christian pilgrims have been walking the wrong way.

The current route, which begins at the site of the Antonia Fortress and ends at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is known as the Via Dolorosa, or the way of suffering. It’s believed Jesus carried his cross along this path on the way to his crucifixion, a moment commemorated by the world’s two billion Christians on Good Friday.

The pathway is marked by 14 stations of the cross, stops along the route where it’s believed Jesus fell under the weight of the crucifix, met his mother, encountered the women of Jerusalem, and other events on the path to his eventual crucifixion.

While no one’s exactly sure where Jesus walked, some historians and archaeologists believe Jesus wasn’t tried at the Antonia Fortress, where the traditional Via Dolorosa begins.

Credit: Lisa Overton/NewsHour

Instead, they say he was tried at Herod’s Palace on the opposite side of the Old City, the site of the present-day Tower of David Museum. If they’re right, the Via Dolorosa would run from the western side of the city to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre rather than from the east.

Last year, the Tower of David Museum opened an exhibition of a once-abandoned prison known as the kishle. Excavations that began in 1999 revealed a trove of archaeological data that traces more than 2,700 years of Jerusalem’s history. And, some speculate, that includes the trial of Jesus.

Archaeologists excavate a once-abandoned prison known as a kishle at Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum. Photo courtesy of Tower of David Museum.

On Saturday’s PBS NewsHour Weekend, Martin Fletcher explores the controversy and spiritual debate around the Via Dolorosa.