The tomb where Jesus Christ was buried was revealed today at a ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, after nine months of restoration.
Believers of various Christian faiths participated in the ceremony at the grave, whose marble construction now has its original ocher color again, journalists report.
"This is not just a gift to the Holy Land, it is a gift to the whole world," said Jerusalem's Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus the Third, addressing the audience, which included Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The Greek restoration team, made up of archaeologists and other experts, has successfully completed the restoration of the aedicule - a word derived from the Latin term "aedecule", which means "small house". The works started in May 2016.
The construction of marble and limestone stands in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ from the 12th century, on the remains from the 4th century.
Urgent restoration was needed for the tomb, which had been exposed to environmental factors such as water, moisture and smoke for years.
The construction site had a historic moment in October, when the marble slab covering the grave was removed for three days. The last time before that when people came to the heart of the holiest place of Christianity was in 1810, when the restoration was done after the fire.
During the 1960s and 1990s, other renovations were carried out in various parts of the church located in the old city of Jerusalem, near the largest sanctuaries of Judaism and Islam, the Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount, but the aedicula was not touched.
In nine months and for a price of 3,4 million euros, practically everything was dismantled, cleaned and restored, including the columns and domes above and inside the building. The window was opened to allow pilgrims to see the bare stone of the old cave for the first time.
The ugly iron structure built by the British authorities in 1947 to support the walls was removed. The soot that had accumulated on the walls of the stone facade was cleaned because pilgrims had lit candles in that place for decades. There are no longer any fears for the stability of the old temple, which was last renovated more than 200 years ago.
The World Monuments Fund, which raised four million dollars for the restoration, said the intervention was necessary because there was a danger of collapse.
The works were financed by the three leading Christian faiths in that church, Greek Orthodox, Franciscan and Armenian, as well as by public and private donations.
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