DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4642#0062
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This chamber, partly an excavation in the limestone, lies directly under the Church built by the mother
of Constantine. It is thirty-seven feet long by eleven wide, and though now naked, when compared
with the general decoration of the Greek shrines, is floored and walled with marble, and seems to have
been once covered with Mosaic, of which some rich specimens still remain.
On the right are three lamps, suspended over the Manger in which our Lord was laid; opposite to
this, the altar, covered with a canopy, is said by the Monks to mark the place where the Magi knelt
to make their offerings. At the other end of the Grotto, in the semicircular recess, a glory represents
the Star which guided the Magi. Round it is the inscription —
" Hie de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus Natus est."
The manger now in the Grotto is only a substitute; the original, according to the Italians, having
been removed to Rome by Sixtus V. It is now in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in a small
Chapel remarkable for the costliness of its ornaments. Numerous lamps, the gifts of Christian princes,
throw light over the darkness of the chamber. Above the spot where the Magi knelt, is a picture
exhibiting them in the act of worshipping; one of the wise men is an Ethiopian.
.JH3EE:
if ^p:
'Af2fEf¥t
This chamber, partly an excavation in the limestone, lies directly under the Church built by the mother
of Constantine. It is thirty-seven feet long by eleven wide, and though now naked, when compared
with the general decoration of the Greek shrines, is floored and walled with marble, and seems to have
been once covered with Mosaic, of which some rich specimens still remain.
On the right are three lamps, suspended over the Manger in which our Lord was laid; opposite to
this, the altar, covered with a canopy, is said by the Monks to mark the place where the Magi knelt
to make their offerings. At the other end of the Grotto, in the semicircular recess, a glory represents
the Star which guided the Magi. Round it is the inscription —
" Hie de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus Natus est."
The manger now in the Grotto is only a substitute; the original, according to the Italians, having
been removed to Rome by Sixtus V. It is now in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in a small
Chapel remarkable for the costliness of its ornaments. Numerous lamps, the gifts of Christian princes,
throw light over the darkness of the chamber. Above the spot where the Magi knelt, is a picture
exhibiting them in the act of worshipping; one of the wise men is an Ethiopian.