An international team of researchers, including experts from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), has uncovered incredible Medieval inscriptions hidden on the walls of the Cenacle, the traditional location of Jesus’s Last Supper. The Cenacle, also known as the Upper Room, is located in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, just outside the Old City walls.

According to the four canonical Gospels, the Last Supper occurred during the week of Passover, shortly after Palm Sunday (Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem) and before his crucifixion on Good Friday. During the meal, Jesus predicted that Peter would deny knowing him because of his betrayal by one of his apostles. This was also the site where Jesus washed his disciples' feet. Now, a landmark study has uncovered overlooked and hidden inscriptions etched into the Cenacle’s centuries-old walls.

Over the centuries, the Cenacle has undergone cycles of destruction and reconstruction, until it eventually took on the Gothic Crusader-era structure that stands today.

Using advanced digital photography, researchers from the ÖAW, in collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), have uncovered coats of arms and sketches alongside the hidden inscriptions.

The study, published in the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, has identified coats of arms belonging to Tristram von Teuffenbach, a Styrian nobleman who was part of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1436, led by Archduke Frederick of Habsburg, who later became the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III.

One of the inscriptions, written in a style typical of Armenian nobility, reads: “Christmas 1300”, lending weight to the theory that King Het’um II of Armenia reached Jerusalem following his army’s victory at the Battle of Wadi al-Khaznadar, also known as the Third Battle of Homs, when the Mongol triumphed over the Mamluks in December 1299.

An Arabic fragment, meanwhile, reads "...ya al-Ḥalabīya," a phrase that references the Syrian city of Aleppo. Based on the double use of the feminine suffix "ya," the researchers concluded that a female Christian pilgrim chiseled the words, an exciting and rare development in itself.

The Cenacle’s walls also have the names and symbols of medieval pilgrims from across Europe and the Middle East, including Johannes Poloner of Regensburg, who documented his journey from 1421 to 1422. A charcoal sketch of the Bernese patrician family Rümlingen’s coat of arms was also found.

“These graffiti shed new light on the geographical diversity and international pilgrimage movement to Jerusalem in the Middle Ages - far beyond the Western-dominated research perspective,” explained Ilya Berkovich, co-author of the ÖAW study.

According to the Bible, the Cenacle was also the site where the Holy Spirit alighted upon the twelve apostles on Pentecost (also Whitsun) celebrated on the 50th day of Easter. Its name is a derivative of the Latin word ceno, meaning “I dine”.