Cenacle
— — the upper room the city kept.
Not only on a wall.
“A vaulted stone room above the traditional tomb of David, reached by a worn staircase on Mount Zion. The Franciscans rebuilt it in the 14th century, and the Gothic ribs they raised still carry the ceiling. Christians read it as the room of the Last Supper and of Pentecost. Pilgrims come quietly. The light falls in panels through the small western windows and rests on the floor.
Cenacle, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Cenacle sits on the upper floor of a stone complex on Mount Zion, just south of the Zion Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. The room directly below holds the traditional tomb of David. The Gothic vaulting visitors see today was raised by the Franciscan friars in the 14th century, who held the site under a Crusader-era foundation before the Ottoman conquest later turned the upper room into a mosque for several centuries. Christian tradition identifies the chamber as the upper room of the Last Supper and of Pentecost, the room where the Apostles gathered after the Ascension.
What survives above ground is the Franciscan Gothic of the 1330s — ribbed vaults springing from slender columns, the capitals carved with foliage in a style brought from western Europe. A small mihrab in the south wall and an Arabic inscription remain from the Ottoman period, when the room served as a mosque after 1524. The lower chamber, venerated as the tomb of David since the medieval period, is built into older masonry that may incorporate Byzantine and earlier work. Archaeologists still debate which courses belong to which century.
The Cenacle is reached on foot through the Zion Gate or up the lane from the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion. Entry to the upper room is free and unticketed, open most days through daylight hours, with the lower tomb-room entered separately and observing Jewish prayer custom. The room is plain — no altar, no furniture — and the quiet is part of what people come for. The Israel Ministry of Tourism lists it among the principal Christian sites of Jerusalem, alongside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Garden of Gethsemane.