According to traditions dating to the fourth century, the church contains both the site where Jesus was crucified[2] at Calvary, or Golgotha, and the location of Jesus's empty tomb, where he was buried and resurrected. Both locations are considered immensely holy sites by Christians.[3] In earlier times, the site was used as a Jewish burial ground, upon which a pagan temple was built. The church and rotunda was built under Constantine in the 4th century and destroyed by al-Hakim in 1009. Al-Hakim's son allowed Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos to reconstruct the church, which was completed in 1048. After it was captured by the Crusaders in 1099, it continued to undergo modifications, resulting in a significant departure from the original structure.[4] Several renovations and restorations were made under the Ottomans.[5] The tomb itself is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicule.
Within the church proper are the last four stations of the Cross of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of the Passion of Jesus. The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage destination since its creation in the fourth century, as the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ, thus its original Greek name, Church of the Anastasis ('Resurrection').
The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.[6][7] Control of the church itself is shared among several Christian denominations and secular entities in complicated arrangements essentially unchanged for over 160 years, and some for much longer. The main denominations sharing property over parts of the church are the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopian Orthodox churches. Directly adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the Church of the Redeemer, marking a Lutheran presence at the site.[8]
Name
The church was named either for the Resurrection of Jesus, or for his tomb, which is at its focal point.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is also known as the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre[9] and the Holy Sepulchre.
Eastern Christians also call it the Church of the Resurrection and the Church of the Anastasis, Anastasis being Greek for Resurrection.
Constantine and Macarius: context for the first sanctuary
After seeing a vision of a cross in the sky in 312,[17]Constantine the Great began to favour Christianity and signed the Edict of Milan legalizing the religion. The Bishop of Jerusalem Macarius asked Constantine for permission to dig for the tomb. With the help of Eusebius (a Bishop of Caesarea) and Macarius, three crosses were found near a tomb; one, which was said to have cured people of death, was presumed to be the True Cross, on which Jesus was crucified, leading the Romans to believe that they had found Calvary.[17][18]
About 326, Constantine ordered that the temple to Jupiter or Venus be replaced by a church.[3] After the temple was torn down and its ruins removed, the soil was removed from the cave, revealing a rock-cut tomb that Macarius identified as the burial site of Jesus.[2][19][20][21]
First sanctuary (4th century)
Two manuscript versions of the oldest known floor plans of the church, from De Locis Sanctis (c.AD 680)[22]
A shrine was built on the site of the tomb Macarius had identified as that of Jesus, enclosing the rock tomb walls within its own.[23][13][24][e]
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, planned by the architect Zenobius,[25] was built as separate constructs over two holy sites:
the great basilica (also known as Martyrium),[26] across a courtyard to the east (an enclosed colonnadedatrium, known as the Triportico) with the traditional site of Calvary in one corner.[14][27]
Diagram of a possible church layout (facing west) published in 1956 by Kenneth John Conant
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre site has been recognized since early in the fourth century as the place where Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose from the dead.[28][f] The church was consecrated on 13 September 335.[28][g]
In 327, Constantine and Helena separately commissioned the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to commemorate the birth of Jesus.
The Constantinian sanctuary in Jerusalem was destroyed by a fire in May of 614, when the Sassanid Empire, under Khosrau II,[17] invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross. In 630, the Emperor Heraclius rebuilt the church after recapturing the city.[30]
After Jerusalem came under Islamic rule, it remained a Christian church, with the early Muslim rulers protecting the city's Christian sites, prohibiting their destruction or use as living quarters. A story reports that the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab visited the church and stopped to pray on the balcony, but at the time of prayer, turned away from the church and prayed outside. He feared that future generations would misinterpret this gesture, taking it as a pretext to turn the church into a mosque. Eutychius of Alexandria adds that Umar wrote a decree saying that Muslims would not inhabit this location. The building suffered severe damage from an earthquake in 746.[30]
Early in the ninth century, another earthquake damaged the dome of the Anastasis. The damage was repaired in 810 by PatriarchThomas I. In 841, the church suffered a fire. In 935, the Christians prevented the construction of a Muslim mosque adjacent to the Church. In 938, a new fire damaged the inside of the basilica and came close to the rotunda. In 966, due to a defeat of Muslim armies in the region of Syria, a riot broke out, which was followed by reprisals. The basilica was burned again. The doors and roof were burnt, and Patriarch John VII was murdered.[citation needed]
On 18 October 1009, Fatimid caliphal-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the complete destruction of the church as part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt.[h] The damage was extensive, with few parts of the early church remaining, and the roof of the rock-cut tomb damaged; the original shrine was destroyed.[23] Some partial repairs followed.[31] Christian Europe reacted with shock: it was a spur to expulsions of Jews and, later on, the Crusades.[32][33][dubious–discuss]
Reconstruction (11th century)
In wide-ranging negotiations between the Fatimids and the Byzantine Empire in 1027–1028, an agreement was reached whereby the new Caliph Ali az-Zahir (al-Hakim's son) agreed to allow the rebuilding and redecoration of the church.[34] The rebuilding was finally completed during the tenures of Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Patriarch Nicephorus of Jerusalem in 1048.[35] As a concession, the mosque in Constantinople was reopened and the khutba sermons were to be pronounced in az-Zahir's name.[34] Muslim sources say a by-product of the agreement was the renunciation of Islam by many Christians who had been forced to convert under al-Hakim's persecutions. In addition, the Byzantines, while releasing 5,000 Muslim prisoners, made demands for the restoration of other churches destroyed by al-Hakim and the reestablishment of a patriarch in Jerusalem. Contemporary sources credit the emperor with spending vast sums in an effort to restore the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after this agreement was made.[34] Still, "a total replacement was far beyond available resources. The new construction was concentrated on the rotunda and its surrounding buildings: the great basilica remained in ruins."[31]
The rebuilt church site consisted of "a court open to the sky, with five small chapels attached to it."[36][failed verification] The chapels were east of the court of resurrection (when reconstructed, the location of the tomb was under open sky), where the western wall of the great basilica had been. They commemorated scenes from the passion, such as the location of the prison of Christ and his flagellation, and presumably were so placed because of the difficulties of free movement among shrines in the city streets. The dedication of these chapels indicates the importance of the pilgrims' devotion to the suffering of Christ. They have been described as "a sort of Via Dolorosa in miniature" since little or no rebuilding took place on the site of the great basilica. Western pilgrims to Jerusalem during the 11th century found much of the sacred site in ruins.[31][failed verification] Control of Jerusalem, and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, continued to change hands several times between the Fatimids and the Seljuk Turks (loyal to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad) until the Crusaders' arrival in 1099.[37]
Many historians maintain that the main concern of Pope Urban II, when calling for the First Crusade, was the threat to Constantinople from the Seljuk invasion of Asia Minor in response to the appeal of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Historians agree that the fate of Jerusalem and thereby the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was also of concern, if not the immediate goal of papal policy in 1095. The idea of taking Jerusalem gained more focus as the Crusade was underway. The rebuilt church site was taken from the Fatimids (who had recently taken it from the Abbasids) by the knights of the First Crusade on 15 July 1099.[31]
The First Crusade was envisioned as an armed pilgrimage, and no crusader could consider his journey complete unless he had prayed as a pilgrim at the Holy Sepulchre. The classical theory is that Crusader leader Godfrey of Bouillon, who became the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem, decided not to use the title "king" during his lifetime, and declared himself Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri ('Protector [or Defender] of the Holy Sepulchre').
According to the German priest and pilgrim Ludolf von Sudheim, the keys of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre were in hands of the "ancient Georgians", and the food, alms, candles and oil for lamps were given to them by the pilgrims at the south door of the church.[38]
Crusaders: reconstruction (12th century) and ownership
By the Crusader period, a cistern under the former basilica was rumoured to have been where Helena had found the True Cross, and began to be venerated as such; the cistern later became the Chapel of the Invention of the Cross, but there is no evidence of the site's identification before the 11th century, and modern archaeological investigation has now dated the cistern to 11th-century repairs by Monomachos.[16]
William of Tyre, chronicler of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, reports on the rebuilding of the church in the mid-12th century. The Crusaders investigated the eastern ruins on the site, occasionally excavating through the rubble, and while attempting to reach the cistern, they discovered part of the original ground level of Hadrian's temple enclosure; they transformed this space into a chapel dedicated to Helena, widening their original excavation tunnel into a proper staircase.[39]
The Crusaders began to refurnish the church in Romanesque style and added a bell tower.[39] These renovations unified the small chapels on the site[clarification needed] and were completed during the reign of Queen Melisende in 1149, placing all the holy places under one roof for the first time.[39]
The church was lost to Saladin,[39] along with the rest of the city, in 1187, although the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed Christian pilgrims to visit the site. Emperor Frederick II (r. 1220–50) regained the city and the church by treaty in the 13th century while under a ban of excommunication, with the consequence that the holiest church in Christianity was laid under interdict.[citation needed] The church seems to have been largely in the hands of Greek Orthodox patriarch Athanasius II of Jerusalem (c.1231–47) during the last period of Latin control over Jerusalem.[45] Both city and church were captured by the Khwarezmians in 1244.[39]
Ottoman period
There was certainly a recognisable Nestorian (Church of the East) presence at the Holy Sepulchre from the years 1348 through 1575, as contemporary Franciscan accounts indicate.[46] The Franciscan friars renovated the church in 1555, as it had been neglected despite increased numbers of pilgrims. The Franciscans rebuilt the Aedicule, extending the structure to create an antechamber.[5] A marble shrine commissioned by Friar Boniface of Ragusa was placed to envelop the remains of Christ's tomb,[23] probably to prevent pilgrims from touching the original rock or taking small pieces as souvenirs.[24] A marble slab was placed over the limestone burial bed where Jesus's body is believed to have lain.[23]
Eastern Orthodox icon (c.1600) commemorating a church renovation
After the renovation of 1555, control of the church oscillated between the Franciscans and the Orthodox, depending on which community could obtain a favourable firman from the "Sublime Porte" at a particular time, often through outright bribery. Violent clashes were not uncommon. There was no agreement about this question, although it was discussed at the negotiations to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699.[47] During the Holy Week of 1757, Orthodox Christians reportedly took over some of the Franciscan-controlled church. This may have been the cause of the sultan's firman (decree) later developed into the Status Quo.[48][bettersourceneeded][i]
A fire severely damaged the structure again in 1808,[23] causing the dome of the rotunda to collapse and smashing the Aedicule's exterior decoration. The rotunda and the Aedicule's exterior were rebuilt in 1809–10 by architect Nikolaos Ch. Komnenos of Mytilene in the contemporary Ottoman Baroque style.[49] The interior of the antechamber, now known as the Chapel of the Angel,[j] was partly rebuilt to a square ground plan in place of the previously semicircular western end.
Another decree in 1853 from the sultan solidified the existing territorial division among the communities and solidified the Status Quo for arrangements to "remain in their present state", requiring consensus to make even minor changes.[50][i]
The dome was restored by Catholics, Greeks, and Turks in 1868, being made of iron ever since.[52]
British Mandate period
By the time of the British Mandate for Palestine following the end of World War I, the cladding of red limestone applied to the Aedicule by Komnenos had deteriorated badly and was detaching from the underlying structure; from 1947 until restoration work in 2016–17, it was held in place with an exterior scaffolding of iron girders installed by the British authorities.[53]
After the care of the British Empire, the Church of England had an important role in the appropriation of the Holy Sepulcher, such as funds for the maintenance of external infrastructures, and the abolition of territorial claims near the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher, the Protestant Church allowed to carry out the elimination of taxes from the Holy Sepulcher, currently the Anglican and Lutheran dioceses of Jerusalem are allowed to attend Armenian cults.
Jordanian and Israeli periods
Diagram of the modern church showing the traditional site of Calvary and the Tomb of Jesus
In 1948, Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan and where the church was located, in the Old City, were made part of Jordan. In 1967, Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem in the Six Day War, and that area has remained under Israeli control ever since. Under Israeli rule, legal arrangements relating to the churches of East Jerusalem were maintained in coordination with the Jordanian government. The dome at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored again in 1994–97 as part of extensive modern renovations that have been ongoing since 1959. During the 1970–78 restoration works and excavations inside the building, and under the nearby Muristan bazaar, it was found that the area was originally a quarry, from which white melekelimestone was struck.[54]
Chapel of St. Vartan
East of the Chapel of Saint Helena, the excavators discovered a void containing a second-century[dubious–discuss] drawing of a Roman pilgrim ship,[55] two low walls supporting the platform of Hadrian's second-century temple, and a higher fourth-century wall built to support Constantine's basilica.[5][56] After the excavations of the early 1970s, the Armenian authorities converted this archaeological space into the Chapel of Saint Vartan, and created an artificial walkway over the quarry on the north of the chapel, so that the new chapel could be accessed (by permission) from the Chapel of Saint Helena.[56]
Aedicule restoration
After seven decades of being held together by steel girders, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) declared the visibly deteriorating Aedicule structure unsafe. A restoration of the Aedicule was agreed upon and executed from May 2016 to March 2017. Much of the $4 million project was funded by the World Monuments Fund, as well as $1.3 million from Mica Ertegün and a significant sum from King Abdullah II of Jordan.[53][57] The existence of the original limestone cave walls within the Aedicule was confirmed, and a window was created to view this from the inside.[24] The presence of moisture led to the discovery of an underground shaft resembling an escape tunnel carved into the bedrock, seeming to lead from the tomb.[13][k] For the first time since at least 1555, on 26 October 2016, marble cladding that protects the supposed burial bed of Jesus was removed.[24][58] Members of the National Technical University of Athens were present. Initially, only a layer of debris was visible. This was cleared in the next day, and a partially broken marble slab with a Crusader-style cross carved was revealed.[13] By the night of 28 October, the original limestone burial bed was shown to be intact. The tomb was resealed shortly thereafter.[24] Mortar from just above the burial bed was later dated to the mid-fourth century.[59]
2020 pandemic
On 25 March 2020, Israeli health officials ordered the site closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the keeper of the keys, it was the first such closure since 1349, during the Black Death.[60] Clerics continued regular prayers inside the building, and it reopened to visitors two months later, on 24 May.[61]
Crusader altar slab discovered (2022)
During church renovations in 2022, a stone slab covered in modern graffiti was moved from a wall, revealing Cosmatesque-style decoration on one face. According to an IAA archaeologist, the decoration was once inlaid with pieces of glass and fine marble; it indicates that the relic was the front of the church's high altar from the Crusader era (c.1149), which was later used by the Greek Orthodox until being damaged in the 1808 fire.[62]
Tourists, pilgrims and locals at one of two access gates to the courtyard; photo by Félix Bonfils, 1870sThe northeast of the courtyard (parvis), with the immovable ladder under a window, and the Chapel of the Franks (right).
The courtyard facing the entrance to the church is known as the parvis. Two streets open into the parvis: St Helena Road (west) and Suq ed-Dabbagha (east). Around the parvis are a few smaller structures.
South of the parvis, opposite the church:
Broken columns—once forming part of an arcade—stand opposite the church, at the top of a short descending staircase stretching over the entire breadth of the parvis. In the 13th century, the tops of the columns were removed and sent to Mecca by the Khwarezmids.
North of the parvis, in front of the church façade or against it:
Chapel of the Franks (Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows): a blue-domed Roman Catholic Crusader chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, which once provided exclusive access to Calvary. The chapel marks the 10th Station of the Cross (the stripping of Jesus's garments).[66]
The tomb (including a ledgerstone) of Philip d'Aubigny aka Philip Daubeney (died 1236), a knight, tutor, and royal councillor to Henry III of England and signer of Magna Carta—is placed in front of, and between, the church's two original entrance doors, of which the eastern one is walled up. It is one of the few tombs of crusaders and other Europeans not removed from the Church after the Khwarizmian capture of Jerusalem in 1244. In the 1900s, during a fight between the Greeks and Latins, some monks damaged the tomb by throwing stones from the roof.[68] A stone marker[clarification needed] was placed on his tomb in 1925, sheltered by a wooden trapdoor that hides it from view.[citation needed]
A group of three chapels borders the parvis on its west side. They originally formed the baptistery complex of the Constantinian church. The southernmost chapel was the vestibule, the middle chapel the baptistery, and the north chapel the chamber in which the patriarch chrismated the newly baptized before leading them into the rotunda north of this complex. Now they are dedicated as (from south to north)
The 12th-century Crusader bell tower is just south of the Rotunda, to the left of the entrance.[69] Its upper level was lost in a 1545 collapse.[70] In 1719, another two storeys were lost.[65]
Façade and entrance
Entrance door
The wooden doors that compose the main entrance are the original, highly carved arched doors.[71][full citation needed] Today, only the left-hand entrance is currently accessible, as the right doorway has long since been bricked up. The entrance to the church leads to the south transept, through the crusader façade in the parvis of a larger courtyard.[72][73] This is found past a group of streets winding through the outer Via Dolorosa by way of a souq in the Muristan. This narrow way of access to such a large structure has proven to be hazardous at times. For example, when a fire broke out in 1840, dozens of pilgrims were trampled to death.[74]
According to their own family lore, the Muslim Nuseibeh family has been responsible for opening the door as an impartial party to the church's denominations already since the seventh century.[75][76] However, they themselves admit that the documents held by various Christian denominations only mention their role since the 12th century, in the time of Saladin, which is the date more generally accepted.[75][77][78] After retaking Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, Saladin entrusted the Joudeh family with the key to the church, which is made of iron and 30 centimetres (12in) long; the Nuseibehs either became or remained its doorkeepers.[75][77][78]
The Altar of the Crucifixion, where The Rock of Calvary (bottom) is encased in glass
Just inside the church entrance is a stairway leading up to Calvary (Golgotha), traditionally regarded as the site of Jesus's crucifixion[79] and the most lavishly decorated part of the church. The exit is via another stairway opposite the first, leading down to the ambulatory. Golgotha and its chapels are just south of the main altar of the catholicon.
Calvary is split into two chapels: one Greek Orthodox and one Catholic, each with its own altar. On the left (north) side, the Greek Orthodox chapel's altar is placed over the supposed rock of Calvary (the 12th Station of the Cross), which can be touched through a hole in the floor beneath the altar.[79] The rock can be seen under protective glass on both sides of the altar. The softer surrounding stone was removed when the church was built.[79] The Roman Catholic (Franciscan) Chapel of the Nailing of the Cross (the 11th Station of the Cross) stretches to the south. Between the Catholic Altar of the Nailing to the Cross and the Orthodox altar is the Catholic Altar of the Stabat Mater,[80] which has a statue of Mary with an 18th-century bust; this middle altar marks the 13th Station of the Cross.[79]
On the ground floor, just underneath the Golgotha chapel, is the Chapel of Adam.[79] According to tradition, Jesus was crucified over the place where Adam's skull was buried.[79] According to some, the blood of Christ ran down the cross and through the rocks to fill Adam's skull.[81] Through a window at the back of the 11th-century apse, the rock of Calvary can be seen with a crack traditionally held to be caused by the earthquake that followed Jesus's death;[79] some scholars claim it is the result of quarrying against a natural flaw in the rock.[82]
Behind the Chapel of Adam is the Greek Treasury (Treasury of the Greek Patriarch). Some of its relics, such as a 12th-century crystal mitre, were transferred to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Museum (the Patriarchal Museum) on Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Street.[83][84][85]
Stone of Anointing
Mosaic depiction of Christ's body being prepared after his death, opposite the Stone of AnointingThe Stone of Anointing, where Jesus's body is said to have been anointed before burial
Just inside the entrance to the church is the Stone of Anointing (also Stone of the Anointing or Stone of Unction), which tradition holds to be where Jesus's body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea, though this tradition is only attested since the crusader era (notably by the Italian Dominican pilgrim Riccoldo da Monte di Croce in 1288), and the present stone was only added in the 1810 reconstruction.[5]
The wall was a temporary addition to support the arch above it, which had been weakened after the damage in the 1808 fire; it blocks the view of the rotunda, separates the entrance from the catholicon, sits on top of four of the now empty and desecrated Crusader graves[87] and is no longer structurally necessary. Opinions differ as to whether it is to be seen as the 13th Station of the Cross, which others identify as the lowering of Jesus from the cross and located between the 11th and 12th stations on Calvary.[86]
The lamps that hang over the Stone of Unction, adorned with cross-bearing chain links, are contributed by Armenians, Copts, Greeks and Latins.[86]
Immediately inside and to the left of the entrance is a bench (formerly a divan)[88] that has traditionally been used by the church's Muslim doorkeepers, along with some Christian clergy, as well as electrical wiring. To the right of the entrance is a wall along the ambulatory containing the staircase leading to Golgotha. Further along the same wall is the entrance to the Chapel of Adam.[citation needed]
Rotunda and Aedicule
Rotunda interior painted by Luigi Mayer, before 1804
1842 lithograph of the Aedicule built after the 1808 fire, after David Roberts
The Aedicule containing the traditional burial of Jesus
The Aedicule with the Coptic chapel to the left with golden roof; main entrance to the right
Facade of the Aedicule with pilgrims
Detail of Aedicule with temporary supports, prior to the 2016 restoration
The Dome of the Anastasis above the aedicule
Angel's Stone in the first chamber inside the aedicula
The Tomb of Jesus (raised platform to the right, interior the second chamber inside the aedicula)
The rotunda is the building of the larger dome located on the far west side.[69] In the centre of the rotunda is a small chapel called the Aedicule in English, from the Latin aedicula, in reference to a small shrine.[l] The Aedicule has two rooms: the first holds a relic called the Angel's Stone, which is believed to be a fragment of the large stone that sealed the tomb; the second, smaller room contains the tomb of Jesus. Possibly to prevent pilgrims from removing bits of the original rock as souvenirs, by 1555, a surface of marble cladding was placed on the tomb to prevent further damage to the tomb.[24] In October 2016, the top slab was pulled back to reveal an older, partially broken marble slab with a Crusader-style cross carved in it. Beneath it, the limestone burial bed was revealed to be intact.[24]
To the right of the sepulchre on the northwestern edge of the rotunda is the Chapel of the Apparition, which is reserved for Roman Catholic use.[94]
Though not within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre compound, directly adjacent to it is the Church of the Redeemer, marking a Lutheran presence at the site.[8]
In the central nave of the Crusader-era church, just east of the larger rotunda,[69] is the Crusader structure housing the main altar of the Church, today the Greek Orthodox catholicon. Its dome is 19.8 metres (65ft) in diameter,[52] and is set directly over the centre of the transept crossing of the choir where the compas is situated, an omphalos ("navel") stone once thought to be the center of the world and still venerated as such by Orthodox Christians (associated with the site of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection).
Since 1996 this dome is topped by the monumental Golgotha Crucifix, which the Greek Patriarch Diodoros I of Jerusalem consecrated. It was at the initiative of Israeli professor Gustav Kühnel to erect a new crucifix at the church that would not only be worthy of the singularity of the site, but that would also become a symbol of the efforts of unity in the community of Christian faith.[95]
The catholicon's iconostasis demarcates the Orthodox sanctuary behind it, to its east.[96] The iconostasis is flanked to the front by two episcopal thrones: the southern seat (cathedra) is the patriarchal throne of the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, and the northern seat is for an archbishop or bishop.[97][98] (There is also a popular claim that both are patriarchal thrones, with the northern one being for the patriarch of Antioch[99] – which has been described as a misstatement, however.)[97]
South of the Aedicule is the "Place of the Three Marys",[100] marked by a stone canopy (the Station of the Holy Women) and a large modern wall mosaic. From here one can enter the Armenian monastery, which stretches over the ground and first upper floor of the church's southeastern part.
Syriac Chapel with Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea
Altar in the Syriac chapel
West of the Aedicule, to the rear of the Rotunda, is the Syriac Chapel with the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, located in a Constantinian apse and containing an opening to an ancient Jewish rock-cut tomb. This chapel is where the Syriac Orthodox celebrate their Liturgy on Sundays.
On the far side of the chapel is the low entrance to an almost complete first-century Jewish tomb, initially holding six kokh-type funeral shafts radiating from a central chamber, two of which are still exposed. Although this space was discovered relatively recently and contains no identifying marks, some believe that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were buried here.[101] Since Jews always buried their dead outside the city, the presence of this tomb seems to prove that the Holy Sepulchre site was outside the city walls at the time of the crucifixion.[24][102]
Franciscan area north of the Aedicule
Chapel of Saint Mary MagdaleneChapel of the Apparition
The Franciscan Chapel of the Apparition (Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament), directly north of the above – in memory of Jesus's meeting with his mother after the Resurrection, a non-scriptural tradition.[103][104] Here stands a piece of an ancient column, allegedly part of the one Jesus was tied to during his scourging.[104]
Arches of the Virgin
Arches of the Virgin
The Arches of the Virgin are seven arches (an arcade) at the northern end of the north transept, which is to the catholicon's north.[105] Disputed by the Orthodox and the Latin, the area is used to store ladders.[106] Over the years the Greek-Orthodox patriarchate placed several icons along the arcade. Dating mostly to the 19th century and designed in Orthodox Post-Byzantine style, they were restored in 2021.[107]
Prison of Christ
Prison of Christ before renovation
In the northeast side of the complex, there is the Prison of Christ, alleged to be where Jesus was held.[108] The Greek Orthodox are showing pilgrims yet another place where Jesus was allegedly held, the similarly named Prison of Christ in their Monastery of the Praetorium[C], located near the Church of Ecce Homo, between the Second and Third Stations of the Via Dolorosa. The Armenians regard a recess in the Monastery of the Flagellation at the Second Station of the Via Dolorosa as the Prison of Christ. A cistern among the ruins beneath the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu on Mount Zion is also alleged to have been the Prison of Christ. To reconcile the traditions, some allege that Jesus was held in the Mount Zion cell in connection with his trial by the Jewish high priest, at the Praetorium in connection with his trial by the Roman governor Pilate, and near the Golgotha before crucifixion.
Ambulatory
The Chapel of the Parting of the Raiment, in the Church of Holy Sepulchre
Chapel of Saint Helena – between the Chapel of the Division of Robes and the Greek Chapel of the Derision are stairs descending to the Chapel of Saint Helena.[109] The Armenians, who own it, call it the Chapel of St. Gregory the Illuminator,[110] after the saint who brought Christianity to the Armenians.
Chapel of St Vartan (or Vardan) Mamikonian – on the north side of the Chapel of Saint Helena is an ornate wrought iron door, beyond which a raised artificial platform affords views of the quarry, and which leads to the Chapel of Saint Vartan. The latter chapel contains archaeological remains from Hadrian's temple and Constantine's basilica. These areas are open only on request.[111]
An Ottoman decree of 1757 helped establish a status quo upholding the state of affairs for various Holy Land sites. The status quo was upheld in Sultan Abdülmecid I's firman (decree) of 1852/3, which pinned down the now-permanent statutes of property and the regulations concerning the roles of the different denominations and other custodians.[112]
None of these controls the main entrance. In 1192, Saladin assigned door-keeping responsibilities to the Muslim Nusaybah family. The wooden doors that compose the main entrance are the original, highly carved doors.[71] The Joudeh al-Goudia (al-Ghodayya) family were entrusted as custodian to the keys of the Holy Sepulchre by Saladin in 1187.[78][113] Despite occasional disagreements, religious services take place in the Church with regularity and coexistence is generally peaceful. An example of concord between the Church custodians is the full restoration of the Aedicule from 2016 to 2017.
Interdenominational issues
The establishment of the modern Status Quo in 1853 did not halt controversy and occasional violence. In 1902, 18 friars were hospitalized and some monks were jailed after the Franciscans and Greeks disagreed over who could clean the lowest step of the Chapel of the Franks. In the aftermath, the Greek patriarch, Franciscan custos, Ottoman governor and French consul general signed a convention that both denominations could sweep it.[114] On a hot summer day in 2002, a Coptic monk moved his chair from its agreed spot into the shade. This was interpreted as a hostile move by the Ethiopians and eleven were hospitalized after the resulting fight.[115] In another incident in 2004, during Orthodox celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door to the Franciscan chapel was left open. This was taken as a sign of disrespect by the Orthodox and a fistfight broke out. Some people were arrested, but no one was seriously injured.[116]
On Palm Sunday, in April 2008, a brawl broke out when a Greek monk was ejected from the building by a rival faction. Police were called to the scene but were also attacked by the enraged brawlers.[117] On Sunday, 9 November 2008, a clash erupted between Armenian and Greek monks during celebrations for the Feast of the Cross.[118][119]
Issues with Israeli authorities
Tax and land disputes
In February 2018, the church was closed following a tax dispute over 152 million euros of uncollected taxes on church properties. The city hall stressed that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and all other churches are exempt from the taxes, with the changes only affecting establishments like "hotels, halls and businesses" owned by the churches.[120]
There was a lock-in protest against an Israeli legislative proposal which would expropriate church lands that had been sold to private companies since 2010, a measure which church leaders assert constitutes a serious violation of their property rights and the Status Quo. In a joint official statement the church authorities protested what they considered to be the peak of a systematic campaign in:
a discriminatory and racist bill that targets solely the properties of the Christian community in the Holy Land ... This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe.[121]
The 2018 taxation affair does not cover any church buildings or religious related facilities (because they are exempt by law),[122] but commercial facilities such as the Notre Dame Hotel which was not paying the municipal property tax, and any land which is owned and used as a commercial land.[122] The church holds the rights to land where private homes have been constructed, and some of the disagreement had been raised after the Knesset had proposed a bill that will make it harder for a private company not to extend a lease for land used by homeowners.[123] The church leaders have said that such a bill will make it harder for them to sell church-owned lands. According to The Jerusalem Post:
The stated aim of the bill is to protect homeowners against the possibility that private companies will not extend their leases of land on which their houses or apartments stand.[123]
Land sale to Israeli settlers
In 2017, NPR reported that the Greek Orthodox Church owns many properties across Jerusalem, Israel and the West Bank. It owns some 30% of the land in the Old City. But, due to property sales, these properties are diminishing every year. The decision to sell is made by Greek leaders, even though most local followers of the church are Arab Palestinians. The Palestinian Christians have raised concerns about selling these properties to Israeli settler-affiliated organizations.[124]
In June 2019, a number of Christian denominations in Jerusalem raised their voice against the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the sale of three properties by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate to Ateret Cohanim – an organization that seeks to increase the number of Jews living in the Old City and East Jerusalem. The church leaders warned that if the organization gets to control the sites, Christians could lose access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[125] In June 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the sale and ended the legal battle.[126]
Connection to Roman temple
Jerusalem after being rebuilt by Hadrian. Two main east–west roads were built rather than the typical one, due to the awkward location of the Temple Mount, blocking the central east–west route.
The site of the church had been a temple to Jupiter or Venus built by Hadrian before Constantine's edifice was built. Hadrian's temple had been located there because it was the junction of the main north–south road with one of the two main east–west roads and directly adjacent to the forum (now the location of the Muristan, which is smaller than the former forum). The forum itself had been placed, as is traditional in Roman towns, at the junction of the main north–south road with the other main east–west road (which is now El-Bazar/David Street). The temple and forum together took up the entire space between the two main east–west roads (a few above-ground remains of the east end of the temple precinct still survive in the Alexander Nevsky Church complex of the Russian Mission in Exile).[127]
From the archaeological excavations in the 1970s, it is clear that construction took over most of the site of the earlier temple enclosure and that the Triportico and Rotunda roughly overlapped with the temple building itself; the excavations indicate that the temple extended at least as far back as the Aedicule, and the temple enclosure would have reached back slightly further. Virgilio Canio Corbo, a Franciscan priest and archaeologist, who was present at the excavations, estimated from the archaeological evidence that the western retaining wall of the temple itself would have passed extremely close to the east side of the supposed tomb; if the wall had been any further west any tomb would have been crushed under the weight of the wall (which would be immediately above it) if it had not already been destroyed when foundations for the wall were made.[16]
Other archaeologists have criticized Corbo's reconstructions. Dan Bahat, the former city archaeologist of Jerusalem, regards them as unsatisfactory, as there is no known temple of Aphrodite (Venus) matching Corbo's design, and no archaeological evidence for Corbo's suggestion that the temple building was on a platform raised high enough to avoid including anything sited where the Aedicule is now; indeed Bahat notes that many temples to Aphrodite have a rotunda-like design, and argues that there is no archaeological reason to assume that the present rotunda was not based on a rotunda in the temple previously on the site.[128]
The New Testament describes Jesus's tomb as being outside the city wall,[m] as was normal for burials across the ancient world, which were regarded as unclean.[129] Today, the site of the Church is within the current walls of the old city of Jerusalem. It has been well documented by archaeologists that in the time of Jesus, the walled city was smaller and the wall then was to the east of the current site of the Church.[citation needed] In other words, the city had been much narrower in Jesus's time, with the site then having been outside the walls; since Herod Agrippa (41–44) is recorded by history as extending the city to the north (beyond the present northern walls), the required repositioning of the western wall is traditionally attributed to him as well.[citation needed]
The area immediately to the south and east of the sepulchre was a quarry and outside the city during the early first century as excavations under the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer across the street demonstrated.[citation needed]
The Christian Quarter and the (also Christian) Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem are both located in the northwestern and western part of the Old City, due to the fact that the Holy Sepulchre is located close to the northwestern corner of the walled city. The adjacent neighbourhood within the Christian Quarter is called the Muristan, a term derived from the Persian word for hospital – Christian pilgrim hospices have been maintained in this area near the Holy Sepulchre since at least the time of Charlemagne.
Influence
From the ninth century onward, the construction of churches inspired by the Anastasis was extended across Europe.[130] One example is Santo Stefano in Bologna, Italy, an agglomeration of seven churches recreating shrines of Jerusalem.[131]
Several churches and monasteries in Europe, for instance, in Germany and Russia, and at least one church in the United States have been wholly or partially modelled on the Church of the Resurrection, some even reproducing other holy places for the benefit of pilgrims who could not travel to the Holy Land. They include the Heiliges Grab[de] ("Holy Tomb") of Görlitz, constructed between 1481 and 1504, the New Jerusalem Monastery in Moscow Oblast, constructed by Patriarch Nikon between 1656 and 1666, and Mount St. Sepulchre Franciscan Monastery built by the Franciscans in Washington, DC in 1898.[132]
Author Andrew Holt writes that the church is the most important in all Christendom.[133]
↑ Greek: Ναός του Παναγίου Τάφου, romanized:Naós tou Panagíou Táfou; Latin: Ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri; Armenian: Սուրբ Հարության տաճար, romanized:Surb Harutʿyan tačar; Amharic: የቅዱስ መቃብር ቤተክርስቲያን, romanized:Yäḳdus Mäḳabr betä-krəstiyan; Hebrew: כנסיית הקבר, romanized:K'nesiyát ha-Kéver
↑ Some Christian scholars have argued that this may have already been a site of veneration for the tomb of Jesus.[10][11][12]Joan E. Taylor posits that the tomb's location could have been preserved by the local collective memory of Jesus's followers.[13]
↑ This shrine would have to be replaced over the subsequent centuries, most recently in the 19th century.[23][13][24]
↑ The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is known among the Eastern Orthodox believers as the Church of the Resurrection.[29]
↑ Adémar de Chabannes recorded that the church of Saint George at Lydda "with many other churches of the saints" had been attacked, and the "basilica of the Lord's Sepulchre destroyed down to the ground". The Christian writer Yahya ibn Sa'id reported that everything was razed "except those parts which were impossible to destroy or would have been too difficult to carry away". Morris 2005
1 2 The need for total agreement for even minor changes is exemplified in the 'immovable ladder' under one of the church's windows; it has remained in the same position since at least 1757, aside from two occasions of temporary removal.[51]
↑ One of the two chapels within the shrine, a pilaster incorporates a piece of the stone said to have been rolled away from the tomb; it functions as a Greek Orthodox altar.[23]
↑ According to archaeologist Fredrik Hiebert, this does not resemble an archaeological excavation, but "a well-built tunnel".[13]
↑ The word is Kouvouklion in Greek (Kουβούκλιον, modern Greek for "small compartment".
The Church of the Nativity, or Basilica of the Nativity, is a basilica located in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine. The grotto holds a prominent religious significance to Christians of various denominations as the birthplace of Jesus. The grotto is the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity, and the basilica is the oldest major church in the Holy Land.
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is the Latin Catholic ecclesiastical patriarchate in Jerusalem, officially seated in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was originally established in 1099, with the Kingdom of Jerusalem encompassing the territories in the Holy Land newly conquered by the First Crusade. From 1374 to 1847 it was a titular see, with the patriarchs of Jerusalem being based at the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura in Rome. Pope Pius IX re-established a resident Latin patriarch in 1847.
The True Cross is said to be the real cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, according to Christian tradition.
Calvary or Golgotha was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, is an autocephalous church within the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Established in the mid-fifth century as one of the oldest patriarchates in Christendom, it is headquartered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and led by the patriarch of Jerusalem, currently Theophilos III. The patriarchate's ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes roughly 200,000 to 500,000 Orthodox Christians across the Holy Land in Palestine, Jordan and Israel.
Church of the Sepulchre of Saint Mary, also Tomb of the Virgin Mary (Hebrew: קבר מרים; or the Church of the Assumption, is a Christian church built around an ancient Judean rock-cut tomb in the Kidron Valley – at the foot of Mount of Olives, in East Jerusalem – believed by Eastern Christians to be the burial place of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Status Quo, a 250-year old understanding between religious communities, applies to the site.
The Via Dolorosa is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem. It represents the path that Jesus took, forced by the Roman soldiers, on the way to his crucifixion. The winding route from the former Antonia Fortress to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—a distance of about 600 metres (2,000 ft)—is a celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions. It is today marked by 14 Stations of the Cross, nine of which are outside, in the streets, with the remaining five stations being currently inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Holy Fire is a ceremony that occurs every year at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Great Saturday, the day before Orthodox Easter. During the ceremony, a prayer is performed after which a fire is lit inside the aediculae where some believe the Tomb of Jesus may have been located. According to the belief, the fire emerges miraculously and is lit by the Holy Spirit.
The Cenacle, also known as the Upper Room, is a room in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, just outside the Old City walls, traditionally held to be the site of the Last Supper, the final meal that, in the Gospel accounts, Jesus held with the apostles.
The Catholic Church in Israel is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, in full communion with the Holy See in Rome.
The Garden Tomb is an ancient rock-cut tomb in Jerusalem that functions as a site of Christian pilgrimage attracting hundreds of thousands of annual visitors, especially Evangelicals and other Protestants, as some Protestant Christians consider it to be the empty tomb from whence Jesus of Nazareth resurrected. This is in contrast to an older tradition that locates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus at a site known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Christian Quarter is one of the four quarters of the walled Old City of Jerusalem, the other three being the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. The Christian Quarter is situated in the northwestern corner of the Old City, extending from the New Gate in the north, along the western wall of the Old City as far as the Jaffa Gate, along the Jaffa Gate - Western Wall route in the south, bordering on the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, as far as the Damascus Gate in the east, where it borders on the Muslim Quarter.
Jerusalem's role in first-century Christianity, during the ministry of Jesus and the Apostolic Age, as recorded in the New Testament, gives it great importance, both culturally and religiously, in Christianity. Jerusalem is generally considered the cradle of Christianity.
The Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, or Holy Community of the All-Holy Sepulchre, is an Eastern Orthodox monastic fraternity guarding the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other Christian holy places in the Holy Land. It was founded in its present form during the British Mandate in Palestine (1920-1948). Headed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, the brotherhood also administers the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, such as metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, archimandrites, hieromonks, hierodeacons, and monks.
The Tomb of Lazarus is a traditional Christian pilgrimage in the al-Eizariya suburb of Jerusalem Governorate, Palestine. It is located on the southeast slope of the Mount of Olives, some 2.4 km east of the city limits of Jerusalem. The tomb is the purported site of a miracle recorded in the Gospel of John in which Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
The Immovable Ladder is a wooden ladder leaning against the right window on the second tier of the facade of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem. The ladder rests on a ledge and is attached to a window owned by the Armenian Apostolic Church. The ladder is a symbol of inter-confessional disputes within Christianity. Its presence in its current location signifies the adherence to an agreement among six Christian denominations, who collectively own the church, not to move, repair, or alter anything in the church without the consent of all six denominations.
The Status Quo is an understanding among religious communities with respect to nine shared religious sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Other holy places in Israel and Palestine were not deemed subject to the Status Quo, because the authorities of one religion or community within a religion are in recognized or effective possession of them.
The Holy and Ancient Archdiocese of Jerusalem, All Palestine, and All the Near East or the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, is a Metropolitan Archdiocese of the Coptic Orthodox Church, which is part of the wider communion of the Oriental Orthodox Church. It is headed by the Coptic Orthodox Metropolitan Archbishop of Jerusalem, the incumbent being Metropolitan Archbishop Antonious of Jerusalem since 2016. Its jurisdiction covers those Coptic Orthodox Christians living in the Near East; with churches and monasteries in the State of Israel, State of Palestine, the State of Kuwait, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Lebanese Republic, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Republic of Iraq. The adherents are largely of Coptic Egyptian descent, mainland Coptic migrants and their descendants. The archdiocese is based at St Anthony's Monastery, in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, beside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
↑ Gates, Charles (2011). Ancient cities: the archaeology of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome (2nded.). London: Routledge. p.424. ISBN978-0-203-83057-4.
1 2 Kroll, Woodrow Michael (19 September 2024). The Trials, Crucifixion, and Burial of Jesus of Nazareth: Grasping the Impact of Every Event the Day Jesus Died. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p.219. ISBN979-8-3852-1504-1.
↑ Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P. (1987). "The Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem: History and Future". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 119 (2): 187–207. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00140614. JSTOR25212148. S2CID163764077.
1 2 3 Corbo, Virgilio (1981). Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme[The Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem] (in Italian). Franciscan Press. pp.34–36. Archived from the original on 10 March 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
↑ From the Catholic Encyclopedia: Archæology of the Cross and CrucifixArchived 26 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine : "Following an inspiration from on high, Macarius caused the three crosses to be carried, one after the other, to the bedside of a worthy woman who was at the point of death. The touch of the other two was of no avail; but on touching that upon which Christ had died the woman got suddenly well again. From a letter of St. Paulinus to Severus inserted in the Breviary of Paris it would appear that St. Helena herself had sought by means of a miracle to discover which was the True Cross and that she caused a man already dead and buried to be carried to the spot, whereupon, by contact with the third cross, he came to life. From yet another tradition, related by St. Ambrose following Rufinus, it would seem that the titulus, or inscription, had remained fastened to the Cross."
↑ NPNF2-01. Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. 2005. Archived from the original on 2 June 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2014. Then indeed did this most holy cave present a faithful similitude of his return to life, in that, after lying buried in darkness, it again emerged to light, and afforded to all who came to witness the sight, a clear and visible proof of the wonders of which that spot had once been the scene, a testimony to the resurrection of the Saviour clearer than any voice could give.
↑ Socrates (c. 439). Historia Ecclesiastica. Revised and notes by A.C. Zenos, DD. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. pp.21–22. Archived from the original on 25 December 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
↑ Stolzenburg, Xenia (2017). The holy place as formula. Floor plans in Adomnan's De locis sanctis to specify the description of pilgrimage sites in the Holy LandArchived 10 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine in: Wolfram R. Keller & Dagmar Schlueter (Ed.) 'A fantastic and abstruse Latinity'? Hiberno-Continental Cultural and Literary Interactions in the Middle Ages, Studien und Texte zur Keltologie (Münster: Nodus Publikationen), p.66. "...there is not a single publication on the Holy Sepulchre or on holy burial sites that fails to include the floor plan by Adomnan, which consequently has become the topos of early depictions of Holy Sepulchre."
↑ The "Pilgrim of Bordeaux" reports in 333: "There, at present, by the command of the Emperor Constantine, has been built a basilica, that is to say, a church of wondrous beauty". Itinerarium Burdigalense, p.594
↑ Kelley, Justin L. (2019). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Text and Archaeology(PDF). Oxford: Archaeopress. p.4 (note 3). ISBN978-1-78969-056-9. Archived(PDF) from the original on 18 December 2023. Retrieved 18 December 2023. The church was called 'the Resurrection' by many Byzantine writers, and it is this title that was adopted by Christian and Muslim Arab historians from the 10th century onward... Robinson and Smith (1856: 377, n. 1) noted that local Jerusalemites of the 19th century still called the church by its Arabic title Kanisah al-Qiyamah, 'Church of the Resurrection'.
↑ Venetian Adventurer: The Life and Times of Marco Polo, p. 88
1 2 3 4 5 6 Pilgrimages and Pilgrim shrines in Palestine and Syria after 1095, Henry L. Savage, A History of the Crusades: The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States, Vol. IV, ed. Kenneth M. Setton and Harry W. Hazard, (University of Wisconsin Press, 1977), 37.
↑ Conder, Claude Reignier (1909). The City of Jerusalem. J. Murray. p.294. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2022. [All kings named]
1 2 Warren, E.K.; Hartshorn, W.N.; McCrillis, A.B. (1905). Glimpses of Bible Lands: The Cruise of the Eight Hundred to Jerusalem. Boston, MA: The Central Committee. p.174.
1 2 Lancaster, James E. (1998). "Finding the Keys to the Chapel of St. Vartan". Jim Lancaster's Web Space. Archived from the original on 20 July 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2012. the height difference can be easily seen; the yellowish wall on the left is the 4th-century wall and the pinkish one on the right is the 2nd-century wall.
↑ Ludolph of Saxony (2022). The Life of Jesus Christ. Translated by Walsh, Milton T. Liturgical Press. ISBN9780879072841. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2022. [footnote:] a small room […] at the top of a flight of steps […] is called the Chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, but is popularly referred to as the Chapel of the Franks.
↑ Wright, John Robert (1995). The Holy Sepulchre: The Church of the Resurrection an Ecumenical Guide. Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel. p.15. ISBN978-965-7024-00-3. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2022. Underneath Our Lady of Sorrows is the Greek Oratory of St. Mary of Egypt, in memory of her conversion that is said to have occurred in the atrium of the Holy Sepulchre before an icon of Mary the Mother of God that was kept there
↑ Quarterly Statement. Palestine Exploration Fund. 1903. p.297. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
↑ "Parvis and Entry". Gerusalemme San Salvatore Convento Francescano St. Saviour's Monastery. Archived from the original on 1 July 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
1 2 William R. Cook of University of New York, lecture series
1 2 3 "The family's relationship with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre". The Official website of the Nuseibeh Family. 9 August 2004. Archived from the original on 22 July 2010. Retrieved 17 May 2022. To protect the Christian places of worship, the Caliph Omar entrusted the custody of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre....to 'Ubadah ibn al-Samit, a companion of the Prophet and the first ruler of Palestine and a forefather of the Nuseibeh family. .... Records and manuscripts kept by the various Christian denominations....all record the Nuseibeh family's and Bani Ghanem's relationship with the Holy Sepulchre, at least since the time of Sultan Saladin. In 1192, Sultan Saladin....re-entrusted the custody of the doors of the Holy Sepulchre to the Nuseibeh's [sic]....
↑ Cohen, Raymond (2008). Saving the Holy Sepulchre. Oxford University Press. p.7. ISBN978-0-19-971990-7. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2022. The Latins were left with the two southern altars on Calvary, namely, the Stabat Mater (Our Lady of Sorrows) and the Nailing to the Cross.
↑ William R. Cook of State University of New York, lecture series
↑ King, Edwin James (1931). The Knights Hospitallers in the Holy Land. Methuen. p.236. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2022. This reliquary, now in the Treasury of the Greek Patriarch in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was discovered in 1893 ... the Church of Mar Hanna, formerly the Conventual Church of the Hospitallers ... The reliquary is of crystal in the shape of mitre set in a framework of gilded bronze, decorated with gems
↑ Boas, Adrian (2001). Jerusalem in the Time of the Crusades. Routledge. p.121. ISBN978-1-134-58272-3. Archived from the original on 10 March 2024. Retrieved 30 September 2022. A remarkable gold and crystal mitre-shaped reliquary of the Crusader period was kept in the church and is now on display in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate
↑ "Coptic Chapel". Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 15 December 2016. Archived from the original on 25 February 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
↑ Janin, Raymond (1913). Échos d'Orient[Echos of the Orient]. Vol.16. Institut français d'études byzantines. p.35. Archived from the original on 10 March 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
↑ DeSandoli, Sabino (1986). The Church of Holy Sepulchre: Keys, Doors, Doorkeepers. Franciscian Press. p.47.
↑ Pierotti, Ermete (1864). Jerusalem Explored. Bell and Daldy. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2022. On the east is the Iconostasis, dividing the 'Holy of Holies' from the rest of the church.
1 2 Dowling, Theodore Edward (1913). The Orthodox Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 30 September 2022. The Patriarch's Seat is on the south-east end, and the corresponding one, immediately opposite, is occupied by one of the Archbishops of this Patriarchate, when required. This north-east Seat is popularly understood to be the throne of the Patriarch of Antioch. Even Dr. C. Schick […] and Baedeker […] make this misstatement.
1 2 Token, Benny (27 February 2018). בעיריית ירושלים לא מתרגשים מהכנסייה[The Jerusalem Municipality is not moved by the church]. Arutz Sheva (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
↑ Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. Death and Burial in the Roman WorldArchived 7 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 48–49, JHU Press. 1996. ISBN0-8018-5507-1. An exception in the Classical World were the Lycians of Anatolia. There are also the Egyptian mortuary-temples, where the object of worship was the deified royal person entombed, but Egyptian temples to the major gods contained no burials.
↑ Holt, Andrew (2019). The World of the Crusades: A Daily Life Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p.57. ISBN9781440854620. was housed in the most important church in Christendom, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Biddle, Martin; Seligman, Jon; Tamar, Winter & Avni, Gideon (2000). The Church of the Holy Sepulchre. New York: Rizzoli in cooperation with Israel Antiquities Authority, distributed by St. Martin's Press. ISBN0-8478-2282-6.
Gibson, Shimon; Taylor, Joan E. (1994). Beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem: The archaeology and early history of traditional Golgotha. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. ISBN0-903526-53-0.
Luke, Harry Charles (1924). "The Christian Communities in the Holy Sepulchre"(PDF). In Ashbee, Charles Robert (ed.). Jerusalem 1920–1922: Being the Records of the Pro-Jerusalem Council during the First Two Years of the Civil Administratio. London: John Murray. pp.46–56. Archived(PDF) from the original on 5 September 2021.
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Rotunda interior painted by Luigi Mayer, before 1804
1842 lithograph of the Aedicule built after the 1808 fire, after David Roberts
The Aedicule containing the traditional burial of Jesus
The Aedicule with the Coptic chapel to the left with golden roof; main entrance to the right
Facade of the Aedicule with pilgrims
Detail of Aedicule with temporary supports, prior to the 2016 restoration
The Dome of the Anastasis above the aedicule
Angel's Stone in the first chamber inside the aedicula
The Tomb of Jesus (raised platform to the right, interior the second chamber inside the aedicula)
