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The Saint Catherine's Monastery
was constructed between 527 and 565 by Emperor Justinian, at the
Mountain Moses` foot. The monastery is the home of many works of
art that are priceless such as: enamels, marbles, wax paintings,
Arab mosaics, chalices, Russian and Greek icons, sacerdotal
ornaments, oil paintings from West and reliquaries. Among these
reliquaries is the one donated in the 17th century by Catherine
of Russia and the one donated two centuries later by Czar
Alexander II. The monastery also has an impressive collection of
4.500 illuminated manuscripts in Arabic, Slavic, Greek,
Georgian, Coptic, Hebrew, Armenian and not only. The history of
Saint Catherine’s Monastery is rich being an significant example
of a hidden travels` jewel. The monastery was called the world`
s smallest diocese and the oldest Christian monastery. The
mother of Constantine the Great, the Empress Helen, is the one
who first ordered the construction of the Burning Bush Chapel
but the Emperor Justinian built it as a protection for the
region’s monks and as an honor for the Burning Bush site. The
legend says that the angels carried away the Saint Catherine’s
body; 500 years later her body was found on a peak’s top that
now has her name. The relics of Saint Catherine are in the
Basilica, in a reliquary from marble. The fortification of the
Saint Catherine monastery is a special one; the walls are from
granite and have a height of 8 – 35 meters and are surrounded by
cypress and gardens. A door having a height of 30 feet
represented the only entrance of the monastery till the 20th
century. In its long history the monastery resisted to all the
attacks and protected the art treasures that are inside of it. |
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