כנסיית פטרוס אין גליקנטו

The land of Saint-Peter in Gallicantu was acquired in 1884 by the Count Amédée de Piellat, born in Vienne (Isère, France) in 1852 and deceased in Jerusalem in 1925 (buried in the vault of Saint-Peter). Builder and benefactor of the French Saint-Louis hospital, he bought the neighboring land to build the Notre-Dame de France hotel complex, and was the real estate agent for several congregations.

During the first pilgrimage of 1882 organized by the Assumptionists, bringing a thousand pilgrims, the Franciscan Brother Liévin de Hamme showed to the Count, on the slopes of Mount Sion, a cave that served as a stable for a donkey. This cave, as he explained, was the one where Saint Peter came to cry over his denial. Hoping to find Saint-Peter’s church, the Count of Piellat bought the land. As the excavations around the cave did not reveal any trace of the church, the Count gave the land to the Assumptionists in 1887 so they can establish a farm to feed the pilgrims of Notre-Dame de France, which was already being built.