Glistening golden mosaics mark the facade of this neoclassical Franciscan church built on the site of the Garden of Gethsemene and dedicated in 1924. The mosaic depicts Jesus assuming the suffering of the world, hence one of the church’s alternative names – the Sanctuary of the Agony of Jesus Christ. More gold mosaics glint in the dim interior.
Despite the name, not all of the world's nations are represented: the seals of the 12 countries that financed the project are located in the church ceiling, but no others. The church is the successor to two earlier sites of Christian worship; the first was a church erected in the 4th century but destroyed by an earthquake in the 740s, and the second was an oratory built over the ruins by the Crusaders but abandoned in 1345 for reasons unknown.
