Archaeologists find possible site of Jesus’s trial in Jerusalem

Harani said that since pilgrims started making their way to Jerusalem centuries ago, the route of the Via Dolorosa has changed several times, depending on who ruled the city at the time and what they deemed important.

In the Byzantine period, for example, the Via Dolorosa began closer to the area where the museum now sits in the western part of the city. It was only after the 13th century that the starting point moved to the Antonia Fortress, the site of a former Roman military barracks, which today sits beneath a school close to the al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock.

The debate over the site of the trial continues among Christian spiritual leaders, historians and archaeologists. Questions about the location stem from various interpretations of the Gospels, which describe how Jesus of Nazareth was brought before Pilate in the “praetorium,” a Latin term for a general’s tent within a Roman encampment. Some say Pilate’s praetorium would have been in the military barracks, others say the Roman general would probably have been a guest in the palace built by Herod.