Basilica of the Transfiguration: Poetry in Architecture
The transfiguration took place on Mount Tabor in Galilee. On the centenary of the Franciscan church on the mount, Günther Simmermacher looks at its location, history and design.
A Holy Land pilgrimage is a transforming experience. This is not necessarily evident externally, but few pilgrims return home unchanged and without having their perspective on life and faith altered in ways that may not even be immediately apparent to themselves. For others, it is an experience so life-changing that family and friends can at once observe a difference.
The transfiguration of Christ provides a suitable metaphor for this, and the splendid basilica atop Mount Tabor, the traditional site of the glorious event, serves as a reminder of the pilgrim’s own spiritual recalibration.
The road up the 586 metre-high Mount Tabor snakes and winds by way of a succession of hairpin bends. Tour buses cannot navigate the sharp curves and narrow roads, so pilgrims must pile into taxis to reach the summit. Eight-seater minibuses have replaced the old sedan Mercedes cabs which came in various states of roadworthiness.
The experience, all 3km of it, used to be wholly conducive to prayer, albeit of the anxious type. That old joke about the priest being sent to purgatory while the taxi driver walking straight through the Pearly Gates because the driver had prompted more prayers than the cleric ever had, might well have had its origins on the way up Mount Tabor!
Some scholars argue that the transfiguration took place not on Mount Tabor, which is located in Galilee about 8km southeast of Nazareth, but on Mount Hermon, near Caesarea Philippi in the far north, where the Gospels locate Jesus before the transfiguration episode. Aside from the fact that Mount Hermon is too high for easy access and for much of the year is snow-covered, early Christian documents are quite clear about the location of the transfiguration: on Mount Tabor. The Church Father Origen mentioned it in the 3rd century, and Cyril of Jerusalem, the great Doctor of the Church, settled the issue in 348 when he declared Mount Tabor as the authentic site.
Church’s centenary
Three Catholic churches have stood on Mount Tabor. A Byzantine church, built in the 4th century, was destroyed. In the 12th century the Crusaders constructed a new church there. The current, impressive Franciscan church on the mount incorporates elements of both predecessor structures. It celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, having been inaugurated in June 1924.
Like several great churches in the Holy Land, it was designed by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi (1884-1960), whom we featured in our March 2024 issue. And like other Barluzzi churches, the design of the basilica of the Transfiguration is poetry through the medium of architecture.
The two front towers house chapels of Moses and Elijah respectively. They represent the tents which Peter proposed to erect. The Moses chapel is covered by the north tower (to the left of the entrance), and Elijah’s chapel, with its original Byzantine mosaic floor, by the south tower.
But the interior is Jesus’ much bigger tent. There are two main altars, one high above, to represent the glory of heaven from where God came down to redeem the world. It is used only rarely.
Mass is usually celebrated in the beautiful crypt, at the foot of an impressive 14-step staircase. It represents our realm, the one to which Christ lowered himself for our salvation. It is part of the crypt of the old Byzantine church, while the altar is from the Crusader period. Its vaulted ceiling and walls are decorated with a series of mosaics with the recurring theme of three angels who preside over Christ’s birth, the Lamb of God, the Eucharist and the Resurrection.
The church’s big day is August 6, the feast of the Transfiguration. The feast goes back to at least the 5th century, and probably was timed to commemorate the date of the dedication of the first church on Mount Tabor.
Today, many Palestinian Christians ascend Mount Tabor on foot for a vigil before the feast day is celebrated in the morning with a Mass — at the place where God manifested Christ’s divinity to the disciples Peter, James and John.
Günther Simmermacher is the author of The Holy Land Trek: A Pilgrim’s Guide.
Published in the August 2024 issue of The Southern Cross magazine
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