The Holy Sepulchre is to be unveiled on 22 March, reconstruction works over

The tomb of Jesus has been resurrected to its former glory. Just in time for Easter, a Greek restoration team has completed a historic renovation of the Edicule, the shrine that houses the cave where Jesus was buried and rose to heaven, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Gone is the unsightly iron cage built around the shrine by British authorities in 1947 to shore up the walls. Gone is the black soot on the shrine’s stone façade from decades of pilgrims lighting candles. And gone are fears about the stability of the old shrine, which hadn’t been restored in more than 200 years.

“If this intervention hadn’t happened now, there is a very great risk that there could have been a collapse,” Bonnie Burnham of the World Monuments Fund said on Monday. “This is a complete transformation of the monument.”

The fund provided an initial $1.4 million for the $4 million restoration, thanks to a donation by the widow of the founder of Atlantic Records. Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also chipped in about €150,000 each, along with other private and church donations, Burnham said.

As the UOJ reported earlier, Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem announced the Holy Sepulchre Chapel will be opened for pilgrims after reconstruction works as soon as on 22-25 March.

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