Chapel of Saint Vartan Jerusalem

The chapel of Saint Vartan is located at the lower level of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher right behind the chapel of Saint Helena which was the crypt of the 4th century basilica and considered the oldest complete part of the entire structure.

The way to Saint Vartan chapel is through an iron gate controlled by the Armenian and is closed all year round except for special occasions. If you wish to go there also, you should check with our private tour guide service before you are visiting Jerusalem.

As we pass through that gate we literally exiting the structure of the church of the holy sepulcher and find ourselves within the ancient quarry that surrounds Golgotha. After a short walk we enter the chapel of saint vartan through a very wide wall dated to the first basilica that was built by Constantine the great and his mother Helena.

On the other side of the chapel we see remaining wall from the pagan temple build by Hadrian in the 2nd century to Jupiter after the complete destruction of Jerusalem. If you visit the church of Alexander Nevsky which is not too far from the church of the holy speulchre you could see there also a remaining gate build by Hadiran but for Aprodite.

The high light of the chapel of Saint Vartan is an ancient drawing of a boat with the Latin inscription “Domine Ivimus” which translate to “God we will go”. It is believed that the drawing of the boat was made by a Christian pilgrim during the 4th century who arrived by his boat to Jaffa and them made all the way to Jerusalem for visiting Golgotha and the tomb of Jesus. When you examing the inscription you can see that this is a small both usually using to take people from a larget both outside the harbor.  you can also see that the sail is down which mean the pilgrim reached the shore saftetly.