Gethsemane grotto, lying on the slope of the mount of olives, much less is known of the garden of Gethsemane. However, it is likely that this played a part of Evangelical drama associated with the last earthly night of Jesus.

Traditionally the garden of Gethsemane is the place of the last of the prayer and arrest of Jesus. But the gospel of Matthew mentions not the garden, "a place called Gethsemane". Here Jesus led the disciples after the last Supper, He left them to "sorrowful and troubled" before the court and the penalty. Here under the stars biblical sounded a piercing agony in the garden – "father! Oh, if Thou be willing, remove this Cup from Me! Nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done! "(Luke 22:42). The apostles at this time were sleeping, for their eyes were heavy" (Matthew 26:43).

The teacher and the apostles spent the night here before: Luke expressly says – "I went as usual to the mount of olives, followed Him and His disciples" (LK 22:39). Spring night in Palestine Studeny, sleep at this time of year in the wet dewy grass under the open sky impossible. Most likely, in the territory of Gethsemane was some famous teacher of the shelter.

Huge grotto (11 to 18 meters) is only a few hundred meters North of the garden. Since ancient times there traces of powerful presses for the extraction of olive oil. The word "Gethsemane" is derived from the Aramaic "oil press". The oil is pressed out in autumn-winter, spring same winepress was empty. On the eve of the Passover, when Jerusalem was nawadnianie crowds of pilgrims, these warm and dry facilities were rented out by anyone.

More than likely, that the Savior and the apostles spent the night in the grotto. In the gospel of John, Jesus "came" from somewhere to meet the soldiers and the crowd. In the gospel of Mark mentions "one young man" caught in a fight only in the blanket on his naked body, he is clearly not slept in the open air.

Gethsemane grotto is located to the right of the entrance to the Greek Orthodox, the Tomb of the virgin Mary. Here, as the story goes, Judas, and brought "a great multitude with swords and staves". Followed by the kiss of the traitor, the arrest of Jesus, a short struggle, during which Peter's sword struck the ear from the servant of the high priest. Fight stopped by echo sounding in the millennia the Savior's words: "put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword perish by the sword" (Matt 26:52).

Gethsemane grotto has changed little over the last two thousand years. Low arches are based on three powerful natural supports. In the South wall is preserved recess for the lever oil press.

In the IV century the grotto became a chapel, the floor was paved with mosaics. When the crusaders here was performed burial (they found about forty. Since then, the arches decorated with stars and scenes from the gospel. On the walls – paintings depicting the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane, Dormition of the virgin and the very kiss of Judas.

In 1955, the cave was flooded by a flood, and the Catholic monks of the Franciscan order, in charge of the grotto, decided to secure water from the original entrance, opened for pilgrims and tourists lesser, North Western.