On the east of that they had erected another large church, called Sta. Maria Majora, with a monastic quadrangle to the south of it, and along the south of the whole square, looking towards Temple Street, ran the noble Hospital of St. John. When Jerusalem was captured by Saladin, the church of St. John the Baptist was by the Saracens converted into a madhouse (in Turkish, Muristân). Hence the whole space has since been known by that name. In the year 1869 the eastern hail, on which stood the church of Sta. Maria Majora, the monastic quadrangle, and a portion of the Hospital of St. John, was given by the sultan to the crown prince of Prussia. This part of the Muristân has since then been excavated by the Germans, and the ruins of the old buildings laid bare. The most conspicuous and interesting feature in this space is the gateway of St. John. It consists of a large round arch comprising two smaller arches within it. A few remains only of the latter now exist. The spandril between the two was formerly adorned with sculpture, now nearly all gone. These arches rest at one side on a central pillar, and at the other on an entablature reaching from the small side columns of the portal. The main arch rests on a buttress adjoining the, portal. Around this runs a broad sculptured frieze, representing the months. January, on the left, has disappeared. Then come “Feb,” a man pruning a tree; “Ma,” very indistinct; “Aprilis,” a sitting figure; “Majus,” a man kneeling and cultivating the ground; “nius” (Junius), mutilated; “lius" (Julius), a reaper; “Augustus,” a thresher; “eptem” (September), a grape gatherer; “br” (October), a man with a cask, above whom there is apparently a scorpion. November is missing, as regards name, but has a woman standing with her hand in her apron, probably the symbol of repose. December missing. Above, in the centre, is the sun (with the superscription “Sol"), represented by a half figure holding a disc over its head. Near it is the moon (“Luna"), a female figure with a crescent. The
the area. Captain Conder, R.E., suggests that possibly this was the original church of St. John Eleemon, and that the conventual church of St. John the Baptist referred to above was not an enlargement of it but a separate structure.
