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GARO NALBANDIAN

WRONG HOUSE? Following the 1920s explorations by Gaudenzio Orfali, Christian pilgrims have been visiting the octagonal church at Capernaum as the memorial church that some medieval accounts say was built over the house of St. Peter. The church consists of two concentric octagons and is paved with beautiful mosaic floors. Under this fifth-century church lay the remains of a fourth-century house church, which itself rests on the ruins of a village house dated to the first century CE. The church’s architectural style, however, does not seem to match the early pilgrimage accounts, making the basilica found at El-Araj a better candidate for the church that Byzantine Christians memorialized as the house of Peter at Bethsaida.