Jerusalem - Russian Compound

From Bar Kochba Square in Jerusalem a street goes off on the right into the Russian Compound, with the green-domed Russian Orthodox Cathedral. This part of the city grew up around 1860 as a large walled complex for the accommodation of the Russian pilgrims who came to Jerusalem in considerable numbers, particularly at Easter. On the northeast side of the complex were the Russian consulate and a hospice for women; to the southwest were a hospital, the mission house, with apartments for the archimandrite, the priests and well-to-do pilgrims, and, beyond the Cathedral, a large hospice for men. The buildings are now occupied by various government institutions (police headquarters, law courts, etc.). In ancient times there was a quarry here, and a relic of it is still to be seen in the form of a column fully 12m/40ft long which broke while it was being quarried and was left in situ, still embedded in the natural rock; it can be seen in a hollow in the ground opposite the entrance to the Cathedral. The column was presumably destined either for the colonnades of the Herodian Temple or - as a number of capitals found here suggest - for a building of the Theodosian period (second half of fourth century).