Room of the Last Supper

Room of the Last Supper Review

Tradition has enshrined this spare, 14th-century second-story room as the location of the "upper room" referred to in the New Testament (Mark 14). About two thousand years ago, when Jesus and his disciples celebrated the ceremonial Passover meal that would become known in popular parlance as the Last Supper, the site was inside the city walls. Formally known as the Cenacle or the Coenaculum, the room is also associated with a second New Testament tradition (Acts 2), as the place where Jesus' disciples, gathered on Pentecost seven weeks after his death, were "filled with the Holy Spirit," and began to speak in foreign "tongues."

A little incongruously, the chamber has the trappings of a mosque as well: restored stained-glass Arabic inscriptions in the Gothic windows, an ornate mihrab (an alcove indicating the Muslim direction of prayer, toward Mecca), and two Arabic plaques in the wall. The Muslims were not concerned with the site's Christian traditions but with the supposed Tomb of King David—the "Prophet" David in their tradition—on the level below. Allow 10 minutes to imbibe the atmosphere.