The restoration of the St. Helena’s Chapel, next to the complex of the Basilica of the Nativity, was finally completed in November 2007. The chapel, unfamiliar to the majority of pilgrims and visitors, is at the base of the bell-tower which the Crusader architects added to the façade of the Byzantine basilica which is the only building in the Holy Land from the same period that was still practically intact until the 12th century.
Like the walls and the columns of the Basilica which were decorated with mosaics and encaustic paintings, St. Helena’s chapel was also frescoed with paintings of which some fragments have remained to the present day. In 1948, when the nearby Crusader cloister of the Monastery of the Augustinians, which since 1347 had been the monastery of the Friars Minor of the Custody of the Holy Land was restored, the architect Antonio Barluzzi and Father Bellarmino Bagatti, who was following the works as consultant archaeologist, decided to restore the paintings in St. Helena’s Chapel as well. In 1950, the artist C. Vagarini was appointed to carry out the work and with the technique of the time, he did his best to restore life to the greatly damaged figurative cycle which was on the eastern wall, less exposed to humidity.
It was therefore once again possible to see on the wall the great scene of the Deisis, with Jesus Christ seated on the throne, blessing with His right hand and with the Gospel in His left hand, between the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. In the intrados of the arch, above Christ, the scene of the Etimasia, with the throne prepared for the Judgement with the Gospel and the Cross between two pairs of standing Saints. There was another saint, with his hand raised in blessing shown in the pendentive at the top, followed, on the eastern wall of the northern intrados, by the Virgin on the throne with the Child between two Saints. Another five Saints were portrayed symmetrically in the pendentive and in the intrados in the southern arch.
Mock marble and drapery decorated the wainscot of the wall. This is what Father Bagatti had been able to describe in his publication on the ancient holy buildings of Bethlehem, printed in Jerusalem in 1952, with an erudite reference both to the artists who had decorated the columns in the Basilica and to the contemporary cycles of frescoes preserved on the walls of the Church of St. Jeremiah in Abu Gosh.
Fifty years after that work, today there once again remained only a faint trace. Father Justo Artaraz, guardian of the monastery of the Nativity, decided to extend the capacity of the chapel to allow the participation of a normal group of pilgrims in the Eucharist celebrated near the Basilica, when the other seats are full. This decision was the opportunity for a second restoration of the paintings and for architectural work which, in the respect of the existing structure, has given new liturgical scope to the chapel.
The paintings were restored by the experts from the Veneto Institute for Fine Arts, directed by Renzo Ravagnan. The paintings were cleaned, by reducing or removing the slightly garish stucco work of the previous restoration and, in extreme cases, even by removing some excessively arbitrary repainting. Once the plaster was consolidated, they went on to the stucco work, in particular to join the fragments of the original work with the stucco of 1950.
In completing the paintings, both the original parts and the previous restoration, which had privileged legibility by using a shade of grey, were respected. Despite the technical difficulties, the work has resulted in a clear interpretation of the painting from the figurative point of view, although it has a general grey tone due to the preponderance of the integration by Vagarini.
The liturgical renovation of the chapel was conducted by the architects Luigi Leoni and Chiara Rovati from the Centre of Pavia, of which Father Costantino Ruggeri had been a leading figure but he was unable to see this work completed as he passed away last June. The work did not concern the structural part which had been brought to the light by archaeologists at an earlier time.
From the archaeological excavation and an examination of the walls, the chapel at the base of the Crusader bell-tower appears to have been built in the Byzantine period next to the narthex of the Basilica. Near the door connecting the northern ante-chamber with the chapel, there are still traces of the white tesserae of the mosaic of the Byzantine era and, on the southern wall of an adjoining room, a blocked door that directly led to the interior of the basilica, replaced by the one still used today with the entrance from the cloister.
On the completion of the restoration of the walls and of the paintings, the liturgical work was started, which concerned the new floor of ancient balata which goes better with the wall paintings. The new altar, in a single block of white Bethlehem stone, with the seats of the celebrant and of the concelebrants have been placed in the centre near the southern wall on an axis with the wooden pews, designed in a curve for the optimum participation of the faithful in the celebration around the mensa of the altar which is also visible from the ante-chamber.
These are improvements for the benefit of the pilgrims until the favourable conditions are created for a complete restoration that restores to the Basilica of the Nativity its dignity, today somewhat mortified due to neglect.
Brother Michele Piccirillo ofm
Like the walls and the columns of the Basilica which were decorated with mosaics and encaustic paintings, St. Helena’s chapel was also frescoed with paintings of which some fragments have remained to the present day. In 1948, when the nearby Crusader cloister of the Monastery of the Augustinians, which since 1347 had been the monastery of the Friars Minor of the Custody of the Holy Land was restored, the architect Antonio Barluzzi and Father Bellarmino Bagatti, who was following the works as consultant archaeologist, decided to restore the paintings in St. Helena’s Chapel as well. In 1950, the artist C. Vagarini was appointed to carry out the work and with the technique of the time, he did his best to restore life to the greatly damaged figurative cycle which was on the eastern wall, less exposed to humidity.
It was therefore once again possible to see on the wall the great scene of the Deisis, with Jesus Christ seated on the throne, blessing with His right hand and with the Gospel in His left hand, between the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. In the intrados of the arch, above Christ, the scene of the Etimasia, with the throne prepared for the Judgement with the Gospel and the Cross between two pairs of standing Saints. There was another saint, with his hand raised in blessing shown in the pendentive at the top, followed, on the eastern wall of the northern intrados, by the Virgin on the throne with the Child between two Saints. Another five Saints were portrayed symmetrically in the pendentive and in the intrados in the southern arch.
Mock marble and drapery decorated the wainscot of the wall. This is what Father Bagatti had been able to describe in his publication on the ancient holy buildings of Bethlehem, printed in Jerusalem in 1952, with an erudite reference both to the artists who had decorated the columns in the Basilica and to the contemporary cycles of frescoes preserved on the walls of the Church of St. Jeremiah in Abu Gosh.
Fifty years after that work, today there once again remained only a faint trace. Father Justo Artaraz, guardian of the monastery of the Nativity, decided to extend the capacity of the chapel to allow the participation of a normal group of pilgrims in the Eucharist celebrated near the Basilica, when the other seats are full. This decision was the opportunity for a second restoration of the paintings and for architectural work which, in the respect of the existing structure, has given new liturgical scope to the chapel.
The paintings were restored by the experts from the Veneto Institute for Fine Arts, directed by Renzo Ravagnan. The paintings were cleaned, by reducing or removing the slightly garish stucco work of the previous restoration and, in extreme cases, even by removing some excessively arbitrary repainting. Once the plaster was consolidated, they went on to the stucco work, in particular to join the fragments of the original work with the stucco of 1950.
In completing the paintings, both the original parts and the previous restoration, which had privileged legibility by using a shade of grey, were respected. Despite the technical difficulties, the work has resulted in a clear interpretation of the painting from the figurative point of view, although it has a general grey tone due to the preponderance of the integration by Vagarini.
The liturgical renovation of the chapel was conducted by the architects Luigi Leoni and Chiara Rovati from the Centre of Pavia, of which Father Costantino Ruggeri had been a leading figure but he was unable to see this work completed as he passed away last June. The work did not concern the structural part which had been brought to the light by archaeologists at an earlier time.
From the archaeological excavation and an examination of the walls, the chapel at the base of the Crusader bell-tower appears to have been built in the Byzantine period next to the narthex of the Basilica. Near the door connecting the northern ante-chamber with the chapel, there are still traces of the white tesserae of the mosaic of the Byzantine era and, on the southern wall of an adjoining room, a blocked door that directly led to the interior of the basilica, replaced by the one still used today with the entrance from the cloister.
On the completion of the restoration of the walls and of the paintings, the liturgical work was started, which concerned the new floor of ancient balata which goes better with the wall paintings. The new altar, in a single block of white Bethlehem stone, with the seats of the celebrant and of the concelebrants have been placed in the centre near the southern wall on an axis with the wooden pews, designed in a curve for the optimum participation of the faithful in the celebration around the mensa of the altar which is also visible from the ante-chamber.
These are improvements for the benefit of the pilgrims until the favourable conditions are created for a complete restoration that restores to the Basilica of the Nativity its dignity, today somewhat mortified due to neglect.
Brother Michele Piccirillo ofm