A long-lost medieval altar thought to have been destroyed in a fire has been discovered in one of the world’s holiest Christian churches.
Construction workers made the sensational discovery in a church in Jerusalem, where Jesus is believed to have been buried and resurrected.
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Workers thought they were moving a graffiti-covered stone slab against a wall inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Instead, they discovered that the stone slab was decorated with ribbon ornaments, a common Roman practice during medieval times.
The multi-ton piece of marble was in a publicly accessible hallway at the back of the church and was even covered in graffiti.
Local researchers believe the altar was consecrated in 1149 based on distinctive markings.
The Crusader artifact was previously thought to have been destroyed in a fire in 1808.
A team from the Austrian Academy of Sciences said the discovery was “sensational”.
They wrote: ‘Firstly, the fact that the slab could have remained hidden for so long in a building as intensely researched as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher – especially as it was in plain view of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every day.’
Ilya Berkovich, historian at the Institute for Habsburg and Balkan Studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, said: “We know of reports from 16th, 17th and 18th century pilgrims about a magnificent marble altar in Jerusalem.
“In 1808, a major fire occurred in the Romanesque part of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
“Since then, the Crusader altar has been lost – at least that’s what people thought for a long time.
“The fact that something so important could go unnoticed in this place was completely unexpected for everyone involved.”
According to New York Post Officethe unique altar was in the “Cosmatesque” style, paying homage to the stone-working Cosmati family, who passed down their skills through several generations in Papal Rome.
A team from the Austrian Academy of Sciences said: “A characteristic of this technique was the ability of its masters to decorate large surfaces with small amounts of precious marble.
“In medieval Rome, marble was mostly scraped from ancient buildings, forcing Cosmatesque masters to optimize whatever marble they could find.
“Their solution was to join together small pieces of marble with the utmost precision, fixing them to create complex geometric patterns and stunning ornaments.”
Westminster Abbey is the only known place where Comatescan art can be found outside of Italy.
The altar in Jerusalem is thought to have been created with the pope’s blessing to honor Christianity’s holiest church and to support Christianity’s claim to the city after it was conquered in 1099.
The site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is identified as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and tomb.
It was built on top of a Roman temple dedicated to the goddess Venus in 335 AD.
The construction was commissioned by the Roman Emperor Constantine I and during the conversion, a tomb was discovered believed to be that of Jesus, who died almost 300 years earlier.
More than four million tourists visit the sacred site every year.
Recently, another artifact linked to Jesus was discovered in Hamburg, Germany.
The oldest record of Jesus’ childhood was found in a 2,000-year-old scroll that tells an incredible story not found in the Bible.
Scrawled into an ancient Egyptian manuscript, it reveals that the Son of God performed a miracle known as the “vivifying of the sparrows” when he was just a boy.
The 2,000-year-old papyrus – a material that predates paper – claims that the five-year-old Messiah transformed clay pigeons into live birds.
The tale, also known as the “second miracle”, is believed to have been written as part of the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (IGT) around the 2nd century.
The book details the youth of Jesus of Nazareth who ended up being excluded from the Bible.
The papyrus went unnoticed at the Hamburg State and University Library in Hamburg, Germany, when experts identified the name of Jesus in the text.
O Humboldt University of Berlin (HU) said in a statement that it was “a significant discovery for the field of research.”
“It was intended to be part of an everyday document, like a private letter or a shopping list, because the handwriting looks very clumsy,” said papyrologist Dr. Lajos Berkes of HU’s Institute of Christianity and Antiquity.
The first written example of the gospel dates from the 11th century.
Last year, a new chapter of the Bible was discovered by scientists after it was erased by a scribe 1,500 years ago.
The incredible discovery that dates back to the 3rd century characteristics chapters 11 to 12 of Matthew and is one of the earliest translations of the Gospels.
The page came to light thanks to the use of ultraviolet photography on a manuscript in the Vatican Library.
The hidden text was initially erased by a scribe in Palestine – a common practice at the time, as parchment was scarce and manuscripts were often erased and reused.
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