The staircase of the Holy Sepulcher that has been in the same place for 3 centuries and that could unleash a religious war

by time news

If you ever decide to travel to Jerusalem and visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcherwhere Jesus Christ he was crucified, buried and resurrected. If you direct your gaze towards the windows on the upper floor of the main façade, you will be able to observe a curious ladder prostrated just below the window on the right. And while it may seem like an unimportant ladder, that ladder has been there for three centuries and moving it could spark a religious war.

Known as «the immovable ladder«It is made of cedar wood of Lebanese origin and, according to the most accepted theory, it was forgotten there by a worker in 1723 during one of the reconstructions of the temple.

Why can’t the ladder be moved?

In the 18th century, during the reign of the Ottoman sultan Osman IIIan agreement was signed The status quo where it was decreed that whoever had control of a certain site at that time would continue to control it indefinitely. However, if multiple groups claimed a site, then all of them would have to agree to any changes, even minor ones.

The problem is that none of the six groups that have rights over the temple agree on who owns the ladder, which is why no one can touch it, since it would trigger a religious war.

Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Jorge Lascar

Furthermore, in 1964, the Pope Paul VI He issued a ruling on “the immovable ladder,” decreeing that no one could move it until the divisions of the religious groups disputing the temple were resolved. Being today a symbol of the ideological differences of Christianity.

When has it been moved?

Although it has always returned to its place of origin, the staircase was moved four times in the last century. The first occurred in 1981, when someone tried to steal it. The second time was in 1997, when an individual hid it for several weeks. In 2002, it was a monk who moved the staircase to protect it from the sun, an act that cost him expulsion from the church. Finally, already in 2009 some workers moved it to fix the bell tower and since then it has remained in the same place, waiting for the differences between the six groups that compete for the right to the temple to be resolved.

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