Print on albumen paper, 28 cm x 22 cm, Private Collection
The Via Dolorosa, in Latin “Sorrowful Way”, is a route of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is about 500 meters path that Jesus walked on the way of his crucifixion. The path has fourteen stations. The last five stations are inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In fact, the path does not originate from the Gospel. Rather it is a pilgrim path that the Franciscan monks established in the 14th century. This picture shows the third station. This place is considered as a first point where Jesus fell down because of the weight of the cross.
Félix BONFILS (1831-1885) is a French photographer. He was one of the first commercial photographers to produce large-scale images of the Middle East in the late 19th and the early 20th century. In 1867, he moved to Beirut to photograph views of the entire Middle East for travelers.
