Saint Peter in Gallicantu is a Roman Catholic church on the eastern slope of
Mount Zion. It is the traditional location of the palace of Caiaphas, the High
Priest who convicted Jesus. Accordingly, it is also noted as the site of
the apostle Peter's triple denial of Jesus, marked by a rooster crow (Matthew
26:74). The church that was present when we visited was built in 1931 on the
site of a Crusader-era church from 1102 and a Byzantine shrine built in
457.
The lower levels of the church incorporate caves from the Byzantine days and
a group of earlier crypts that may have been where Jesus was held during his
arrest. The area north of the church features ruins of the Byzantine chapel and
a staircase down to the Kidron Valley is traditionally cited as the path
followed by Jesus down to Gethsemane (Matthew 26, Mark 14).