Jerusalem - Antonia Fortress

St Mary's Gate Street (Tariq Sitti Maryam) runs west to the site of the Antonia Fortress in Jerusalem, built by Herod the Great and named after Mark Antony, who then ruled the eastern part of the Roman Empire. The land here is higher than the Temple Mount to the south, and Herod accordingly chose this commanding situation for the erection of a strong fortress at the angle between the northern and western walls of the Temple precinct, on the site of the earlier Hasmonean stronghold of Baris.

The Antonia Fortress covered an area 100m/110yds by 160m/175yds and was surrounded by high battlemented walls. Flavius Josephus tells us in his "Jewish History" (V,5,8) that the fortress stood on a precipitous rock 33m/108ft high which was faced with polished stone slabs to a height of 27m/89ft. At the four corners were towers, the tallest of which, at the southeast corner, was almost 50m/165ft high, "so that from this tower the whole of the Temple precinct could be seen. Where it adjoined the Temple colonnades there were steps leading down to them, on which guards from the Roman unit which was always stationed in the fortress could descend, fully armed, to the colonnades in order to watch for any sign of disturbances among the population on days of festival". The interior "had the spaciousness and the appointments of a palace, for it was divided into apartments of every kind and purpose, with colonnades and baths and large courtyards, so that ... in splendor it was like a royal palace". The fortress stood for only a few decades. After Titus's conquest of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 it was pulled down. Parts of it, however, must have remained, for in the year 135, on the occasion of a visit by the Emperor Hadrian, a triumphal arch was built behind the main entrance on the west side. This, now known as the Ecce Homo Arch, still spans the Via Dolorosa. Other remains of the triumphal arch and of the Antonia (a cistern and the paving of the courtyard) can be seen in the Church of the Sisters of Zion.