Grotto of Saint Paul in Ephesus and the Fresco of Paul and Thecla

The Grotto of Saint Paul in Ephesus is a small cave chapel on the slope of Mount Bülbül, the ancient Mount Koressos, above Ephesus Ancient City. Its most famous painting shows Apostle Paul teaching, young Thecla listening at her window and her mother Theoclia. The painting dates from the late 5th century and came to light in 1998. Today the grotto is closed to all visitors, to protect its fragile frescoes.

Most visitors of Ephesus pass below the cave without knowing it is there. I write about it not to send more people up the hill, but to keep its story alive.

Why the Grotto of Saint Paul Is One of the Most Important Early Christian Sites in Ephesus

The Grotto of Saint Paul holds a significance that reaches far beyond its modest size and its hidden location on the slope of Mount Bülbül. The fresco of the Apostle Paul on its passage wall is the only known depiction of Paul anywhere in Ephesus, and the scene of Paul together with Saint Thecla is the earliest known image of the two of them shown together found anywhere in the world.

For a city where Paul spent three of the most important years of his entire ministry, this small painted cave is, remarkably, the single surviving portrait of the apostle in the place he shaped so deeply.

The cave’s modern story begins with the search for another holy site. In 1891 the Lazarist priests Father Eugène Poulin and Father Henri Jung came upon the grotto while exploring the hills above Ephesus in their search for the House of the Virgin Mary.

The Austrian archaeologist Karl Herold examined it in 1906, but its true importance was not recognized until the late 1990s, when Dr. Renate Pillinger of the University of Vienna uncovered the Paul fresco beneath layers of later plaster and dated it to the late fifth or early sixth century AD. Pillinger’s work revealed that the walls carry frescoes from roughly five different periods: painted, whitewashed, and repainted across more than a thousand years of continuous Christian use, which is exactly why the cave is kept locked and protected today.

Important Events Took Place in Ephesus During Paul’s Mission

Apostle Paul spent nearly 3 years in Ephesus. Several Biblical events took place during Apostle Paul’s time in Ephesus such as Burning of the Books on Magic in Ephesus, Riot of Silversmiths in Ephesus, Incident with the Seven Sons of Sceva, Preaching in the Hall of Tyrannus and many more.

How Visits to the Grotto of Apostle Paul Worked Before It Closed

Today the grotto is closed to all visitors and no reopening date has been announced. The lines below tell how a visit worked in the years when the site management still gave permission.

The Grotto of Apostle Paul in Ephesus is one of the most special attractions in Ephesus Archeological Site. The Grotto is located off the main touring route in Ephesus. Also reaching the Grotto of Apostle Paul requires a special permission to be acquired from the Ephesus Archeological Museum. There is a certain amount of extra admission money to be paid too.

Maybe Paul’s Cave is very well known but at the same time it might be the least visited attraction in Ephesus. I believe it is mainly due to the location of the cave. Also, delicate contents such as fragile frescoes on the walls of the cave should be protected that’s why it is not a good idea to open the cave to the large number of everyday visitors of Ephesus Ancient City.

I joined an expedition to the Grotto of Apostle Paul and made some exclusive photos for you. Also, you can find an exclusive video which shows detailed scenes from the interior of the Paul’s Cave in Ephesus.

Road to the Grotto of Apostle Paul in Ephesus

I recommend using the lower entrance of Ephesus ancient city since it will be closer to the road leading to the Grotto of Apostle Paul. After walking through Tetragonos Agora or the Harbor Street by the Ephesus Grand Theater you will come across a stairway. You should climb the stairs located in between Library of Celsus and Terrace Houses to reach the gate leading to the cave. I got the keys from Ephesus Archeological Site management which unlocked the doors located on our way to the Cave of Paul.

Entrance of the Grotto of Apostle Paul in Ephesus

After walking a very scenic road and enjoying views of the ruins in Ephesus, you will reach the entrance of the Cave of Paul in Ephesus. The Entrance of the cave is protected by a padlock and I had the key for it. Gate’s height is about one and a half meter, so you should be careful while getting into the cave. Cave’s inner height is about two meters making it very comfortable to walk inside.

Things to See in the Grotto of Apostle Paul in Ephesus

First Frescoes on the Right

There will be three frescoes from the 6th century welcoming you on the entrance of the Grotto of Apostle Paul. The first one is Saint Thecla. The second one which is in the middle is Apostle Paul and the third one is Theoclia. This painting tells us the story of Saint Paul with Saint Thecla in Iconium.

Apostle Paul and Thecla met for the first time in Iconium (today’s Turkish city of Konya). When Paul came to Iconium to spread Christianity, Thecla was an engaged young girl belonging to one of the most important families of the city. Paul gave a sermon in the house of Onesiphorus about virginity and chastity.

Listening to Paul’s sermon from the window of his adjoining house (as it is shown on the fresco painted on the wall of the Grotto of Apostle Paul in Ephesus) for three days and three nights, Thecla was so impressed that she gave up marrying and devoted herself to Christianity. The mother of Thecla, Theoclia who did not want her daughter to become a Christian, and Thecla’s abandoned fiancée could not pursue her giving up her decision, prepared a conspiracy against Apostle Paul.

They have Paul thrown into the dungeon and tried to prevent Thecla seeing him. But Thecla managed to enter Paul’s cell by giving the guards her jewels and continued to listen to his teachings in the dungeon. Learning that their daughter was with Paul in the dungeon, the family took Saint Paul and Thecla out of the dungeon, and they were questioned again. At the end of the interrogation, it was decided that Paul would be whipped and thrown out of Iconium.

There is a detail in this fresco that rewards a closer look. Paul is shown seated with a book on his lap and his right hand raised in the two-fingered gesture of teaching. The figure of Theoclia, Thecla’s mother, was originally painted with the very same authoritative raised hand, but at some point in antiquity her eyes and her upraised hand were deliberately scratched away.

Scholars connect this defacement to her role as the villain of the story: in the Acts of Paul and Thecla it is Theoclia who turns against her own daughter and cries out for her to be burned. Pilgrims venerating the image appear to have physically attacked the eyes and hand of the antagonist, a striking example of how a painted wall could become the object of real emotion centuries after it was made.

The story behind the fresco comes from the Acts of Paul and Thecla, an apocryphal Christian text composed in the middle of the second century AD, within living memory of the apostolic generation. The text circulated so widely that the North African theologian Tertullian, writing around 200 AD, felt obliged to denounce it.

His objection had little effect on its popularity: Thecla went on to become one of the most venerated female saints of the early church, honored in the Eastern tradition as “equal to the apostles” and as a protomartyr, with her greatest shrine at Seleucia, modern Silifke on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast. The presence of her image at equal prominence to Paul, in a painted cave at Ephesus, shows how powerful her cult had become by the time these walls were decorated.

What Happened to Thecla after Iconium

After Paul left Iconium, the governor condemned Thecla to be burned in the theater of the city. The fire did not touch her and a storm of rain and hail put it out.

Thecla found Paul again and went with him to Antioch. There she fought off a nobleman called Alexander and was condemned to the wild beasts. In arena a lioness lay down at her feet and fought for her. Then Thecla threw herself into a great tank of water full of seals and baptized herself in the name of Jesus Christ.

Later she sewed her cloak in the fashion of a man’s cloak and found Paul at Myra. By the way, Myra is today’s Demre, the town of Saint Nicholas. Paul told her “Go, and teach the word of God.” She taught in Iconium and then in Seleucia, today’s Silifke, where she spent the rest of her life.

Graffities on the Wall

So far 300 different graffities were identified on the walls of the Grotto of Apostle Paul in Ephesus. Graffities can be seen on both sides of the cave. They are all written in Greek which makes us to believe local people who visited this cave left them on the walls. Translations showed that the main theme of these graffities is asking for forgiveness and good health.

Continued study of the cave by the Austrian Archaeological Institute has documented even more of this writing than was first counted: over five hundred graffiti and inscriptions in total, ranging in date from the fifth century all the way to the early twentieth. Among the most touching are short prayers scratched directly into the plaster, such as “Paul, help your servant” and an invocation of “the hidden Mother of God.”

Read together, these inscriptions are the trace of roughly fourteen hundred years of unbroken pilgrimage: ordinary people, generation after generation, climbing the slope to leave their hopes for forgiveness and health on the wall of a cave dedicated to the apostle who had once lived in their city.

Fresco of Jesus and Saint George in the Grotto of Apostle Paul

You will see an amazing fresco when you reach to the end of the Grotto of Apostle Paul. Fresco of Jesus and Saint George covers three walls of the cave. Jesus Christ stands in the middle. Jesus Christ is shown as a young man, and he does not have any beard. Saint George is on the right side. We realized it is Saint John thanks to his well known spear. Unfortunately so far the other figures could not be identified.

This great composition at the rear of the cave is what art historians call a theophany, a “showing of God.” Christ is enthroned at the center on a band representing a rainbow, his halo marked with a cross, flanked by standing figures and approached by a small group of worshippers, almost certainly the family who paid for the painting, shown in an attitude of veneration.

The figure carrying the spear and shield is generally dated much later than the rest, to the twelfth or thirteenth century, which fits the pattern of a sacred space that was repainted again and again over the centuries as each generation added its own devotion to the walls.

Fresco showing Binding of Isaac

Biblical story of Binding of Isaac can be seen on the walls of the cave. It is Abraham standing on the left and hand of Isaac on the altar can be seen on the right.

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love–Isaac–and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” – Genesis 22:2

Paul and Thecla in Christian Ephesus

Why did someone paint Paul and Thecla in a cave above Ephesus? In the 5th and 6th centuries pilgrims came to the tomb of Saint John, where Emperor Justinian built the Basilica of Saint John, to the Church of Mary, where the Council of Ephesus met in 431, and to the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. The grotto was one more holy stop for them.

Each figure in the fresco has its name painted in Greek beside it, we know exactly who they are. Interestingly, the painter did not choose a scene from Paul’s years in Ephesus. He chose Iconium and a young girl listening at her window.

The story ends with Thecla teaching, and women taught in Paul’s own circle too. Here in Ephesus, Priscilla and Aquila explained the way of God to Apollos (Acts 18:26). You can read more in my article on Mary, Thecla and Lydia in Asia Minor.

Video Tour to the Grotto of Apostle Paul in Ephesus

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Grotto of Saint Paul located in Ephesus?

The grotto is cut into the slope of Mount Bülbül, the ancient Mount Coressus, inside the Ephesus archaeological site, set well away from the main marble streets that most visitors walk. It sits on the hillside reached by climbing from the area between the Library of Celsus and the Terrace Houses.

Is the Grotto of Saint Paul open to the public?

No. The cave is closed to all visitors to protect its fragile frescoes and inscriptions, and no reopening date has been announced. In earlier years a very small number of visitors saw it with special permission from the site management.

How old are the frescoes in the cave?

The principal frescoes, including the famous portrait of Paul with Thecla, are dated by Dr. Renate Pillinger to the late fifth or early sixth century AD, with later additions such as the Saint George figure painted several centuries afterward. The cave was used as a Christian chapel and pilgrimage site from the early Byzantine period until the nineteenth century.

Who was Saint Thecla?

Thecla was, according to the second-century Acts of Paul and Thecla, a young noblewoman of Iconium (modern Konya) who converted after hearing Paul preach, broke off her arranged marriage, and followed him as a disciple. She became one of the most venerated female saints of the early church and is honored in the Eastern Orthodox tradition as equal to the apostles.

Did Apostle Paul actually live in this cave?

There is no evidence that Paul himself ever used the cave. It became a place of Christian veneration in his memory in the centuries after his death, decorated with his image and visited by generations of pilgrims, rather than a place he personally inhabited during his three years in Ephesus.

How was the Grotto of Saint Paul discovered?

The cave was first found in 1891 by the Lazarist priests Eugène Poulin and Henri Jung while they were searching the hills above Ephesus for the House of the Virgin Mary. The Austrian archaeologist Karl Herold examined it in 1906, but its real importance emerged only in the late 1990s, when Renate Pillinger of the University of Vienna uncovered and identified the Paul fresco beneath later plaster.

Why is the Grotto of Saint Paul closed to visitors?

The grotto stays locked and closed to visitors so that its fragile paintings and the old prayers scratched on its walls survive. The fresco of Paul, Thecla and Theoclia is about 1,500 years old, and Austrian specialists cleaned and conserved it. My photos and my video above show you the inside of the cave.

What is the Acts of Paul and Thecla?

It is an early Christian story written in Greek in the 2nd century, and it is not part of the Bible. Tertullian wrote that a presbyter in Asia composed it out of love for Paul and lost his office for it.

A Final Reflection on the Grotto of Saint Paul

Of all the places I take visitors in and around Ephesus, the Grotto of Saint Paul is the one that seems to stay with people the longest, and I think I understand why. The great monuments of the city (the Library of Celsus, the Great Theater, the wide marble streets) speak of power, wealth, and public life. The cave speaks of something quieter and far more private.

Here, away from the crowds, on a wall blackened by the soot of fourteen centuries of oil lamps, ordinary people scratched their hopes directly into the plaster and left them there: a prayer for a sick child, a plea for forgiveness, the name of someone they loved.

Hire Biblical Tour Guide in Ephesus

You can hire me as your licensed guide for a day in Ephesus, İzmir or Pamukkale, and I will tell you about Apostle Paul’s story on the streets he walked. Please have a look at my guiding rates and guiding areas, and write to me through my contact page.

I hope we will walk in the footsteps of Apostle Paul in Ephesus together. You can always contact me to ask your questions about the grotto. See you soon, Hasan Gülday.