Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Transliterated Name	Source	Name
Calvary	English
Calvariae	Latin
Calvariae locus	Latin
Golgotha	Greek	Γολγοθᾶ

Description and later History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

from Dan Bahat in Stern et al (1993 v. 2)

Since the report of L. H. Vincent and F. M. Abel in 1922, excavations have been carried out in the church [of the Holy Sepulchre] in 1960 to 1963, on behalf of various Christian communities (in the course of renovation work). The present Church of the Holy Sepulcher is basically the church built by the Crusaders. Upon arriving in Jerusalem, they found the eleventh-century church-an inadequate attempt made in 1042-1048 to renovate the Byzantine Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Crusaders rebuilt it, here and there incorporating the foundations of the previous building. The Crusader structure is essentially modeled on European churches of the twelfth century: a basilica! church with a transept and an apse containing an altar and surrounded by chapels. Excavations have ascertained that the crypt beneath the Chapel of Saint Helena, as well as the chapel itself, were also built in the Crusader period (and not earlier). However, unlike European churches, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher does not have a nave - instead of it, it incorporates the Byzantine rotunda, which was renovated in the eleventh century. The height of the rotunda dictated the height of the church (25.5 m), and the use of a pointed arch, which became increasingly common in this period. The bulk of the Crusaders' building activities took place in the so-called Holy Garden, which was the open part of the church as far back as the Byzantine period. The Crusader sculpture and molded items, some imported from Europe, the style of the capitals and the local decorative elements, such as the wall mosaics, ceiling mosaics and ornamentation of the arches, constitute the sole example in this country of this type of Crusader art. On the site of the Byzantine basilica (which was never rebuilt) the Crusaders built a monastery for the Augustinian canons who served in the church. The monastery was built around a square courtyard; some of the surrounding buildings are preserved, notably the refectory and parts of the basement of the monastery.

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Maps, Aerial Views, Plans, and Photos

Maps

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Map of the Old City and

Map of the Old City and its environs; numbers refer to excavation sites discussed in the text

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Stern et al (2008)

its environs from Stern et al (1993 v. 2)

Magnified

Map of the Old City and

Map of the Old City and its environs; numbers refer to excavation sites discussed in the text

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Stern et al (2008)

its environs from Stern et al (1993 v. 2)

Aerial Views

Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Google Earth

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

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Church of the Holy Sepulchre on govmap.gov.il

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

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Plans

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Plan of the Church of

Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Crusader Period

Stern et al (1993 v. 2)

the Holy Sepulchre in the Crusader Period from Stern et al (1993 v. 2)

Magnified

Plan of the Church of

Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Crusader Period

Stern et al (1993 v. 2)

the Holy Sepulchre in the Crusader Period from Stern et al (1993 v. 2)

Photos

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The Cracks of Calvary

The Cracks of Calvary

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Wilson44691 - Wikipedia - CCO 1.0

from Wikipedia

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The Cracks of Calvary

The Cracks of Calvary

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Wilson44691 - Wikipedia - CCO 1.0

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1834 CE Fellahin Revolt Earthquake

Discussion

Cracks of Calvary

Discussion

1834 CE Fellahin Revolt Earthquake

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description
Cracked the dome of the Catholicon	Church of the Holy Sepulchre Map of the Old City and its environs; numbers refer to excavation sites discussed in the text Click on Image to open image in a new tab Stern et al (2008) The church in 2010, from left to right: the bell tower (12th century), rotunda (big dome), catholicon (smaller dome), and ambulatory Click on Image to open a high resolution magnifiable image in a new tab Gerd Eichmann - Wikipedia -CC BY-SA 4.0 Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Crusader Period Click on Image to open image in a new tab Stern et al (1993 v. 2)		"an earthquake, one of the strongest ever felt in Palestine, destroyed many houses, and levelled to the earth that part of the [Jerusalem] city wall which passes the temple of the Muhammadans. The monastery of Bethlehem was rendered uninhabitable, and many of the inhabitants were killed in the ruin of their houses. For ten days earthquakes continued to rock the city, though none of them was by any means so severe as the first." - Anonymous Welsh Traveler "At six o'clock on Sunday morning, May 13th, there was an earthquake. It lasted but three seconds, but it was so violent that the dome of the Catholicon was cracked in seven places and all the plaster fell off. The big dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was shaken, but being of wood and well bound together, it was not greatly damaged, Many big houses in Jerusalem were cracked and many fell. Part of the city wall, near the Mosque of Omar, fell. A minaret fell in Jerusalem, and another one on the Mount of Olives, as did the dome of the Shrine of the Ascension. In Bethlehem the monasteries of the Franks and the Armenians and ours were greatly damaged, especially the belfry. By God's mercy the beautiful Church of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the new pilgrim-house, was not damaged." - Neophytos "In July 1834, a strong earthquake threw down several piles, and also blew out one part of the wall by a Mosque, and threatened the collapse of the Latin Rlofters." - Titus Tobler "Chapter XIV - Important Events connected with the History of the Church of the Resurrection ... 1834 The Dome of the Catholicon was partly destroyed by an earthquake. It was repaired by the Greeks." - History of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem

1834 CE Fellahin Revolt Earthquake

Earthquake Archeological Effects chart

Earthquake Archeological Effects (EAE)

Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224)

of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224)

Effect	Location	Image(s)	Description	Intensity
Cracked the dome of the Catholicon	Church of the Holy Sepulchre Map of the Old City and its environs; numbers refer to excavation sites discussed in the text Click on Image to open image in a new tab Stern et al (2008) The church in 2010, from left to right: the bell tower (12th century), rotunda (big dome), catholicon (smaller dome), and ambulatory Click on Image to open a high resolution magnifiable image in a new tab Gerd Eichmann - Wikipedia -CC BY-SA 4.0 Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Crusader Period Click on Image to open image in a new tab Stern et al (1993 v. 2)		"an earthquake, one of the strongest ever felt in Palestine, destroyed many houses, and levelled to the earth that part of the [Jerusalem] city wall which passes the temple of the Muhammadans. The monastery of Bethlehem was rendered uninhabitable, and many of the inhabitants were killed in the ruin of their houses. For ten days earthquakes continued to rock the city, though none of them was by any means so severe as the first." - Anonymous Welsh Traveler "At six o'clock on Sunday morning, May 13th, there was an earthquake. It lasted but three seconds, but it was so violent that the dome of the Catholicon was cracked in seven places and all the plaster fell off. The big dome of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was shaken, but being of wood and well bound together, it was not greatly damaged, Many big houses in Jerusalem were cracked and many fell. Part of the city wall, near the Mosque of Omar, fell. A minaret fell in Jerusalem, and another one on the Mount of Olives, as did the dome of the Shrine of the Ascension. In Bethlehem the monasteries of the Franks and the Armenians and ours were greatly damaged, especially the belfry. By God's mercy the beautiful Church of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the new pilgrim-house, was not damaged." - Neophytos "In July 1834, a strong earthquake threw down several piles, and also blew out one part of the wall by a Mosque, and threatened the collapse of the Latin Rlofters." - Titus Tobler "Chapter XIV - Important Events connected with the History of the Church of the Resurrection ... 1834 The Dome of the Catholicon was partly destroyed by an earthquake. It was repaired by the Greeks." - History of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem	VI+

This evidence requires a minimum Intensity of VI (6) when using the Earthquake Archeological Effects chart of Rodríguez-Pascua et al (2013: 221-224).

References

Articles and Books

Ambraseys, N. N. (2009). Earthquakes in the Mediterranean and Middle East: a multidisciplinary study of seismicity up to 1900.

Corbo, V. C. (1981). Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme : aspetti archeologici dalle origini al periodo crociato. Franciscan Print. Press. Vol 1-3

Corbo, V. (1988). Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme, Vol. 38. Nova et vetera. Liber Annuus, pp. 381-422.

Garbarino, 0. (2001). II Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme: la rappresentazione tridimensionale de dati materiali come ambito privilegiato della filologia e fase ulteriore della ricerca archeologica , PhD thesis. Universita di Genova.

Garbarino, O. (2005). Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme. Appunti di ricerca storico-architettonica. Liber Annuus, 55(1), 239–314.

Kazmer, M. (2025) The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and earthquakes , Central European Geology

Tucci, G. (Ed.) (2019). Jerusalem. The Holy Sepulchre. Research and Investigations (2007–2011) . Collana di restauro architettonico 14. Altralinea Edizioni, Florence, Italy, p. 335.

Bibliography from Stern et al (1993 v. 2)

Vincent-Abel, Jerusalem Nouvelle, 40-300

W. Harvey, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, London 1935

E. B. Smith, The Dome: A Study in the History of Ideas (Princeton Monographs in Art and Archaeology 25), Princeton 1950, 16-29

V. Corbo, LA 12 (1962), 221-304

14 (1964), 293-338

15 (1965), 316-318

19 (1969), 65-144

38 (1988), 391-422

id., II Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme 1-3, Jerusalem 1981-1982

A. Ovadiah, Corpus of the Byzantine Churches in the Holy Land (op. cit.), 75-77

Supplementum 2, 134-138

M. T. Petrozzi, Dal Calvaria a! S. Sepolcro (Quaderni de La Terra Santa), Jerusalem 1972

D. Barag and J. Wilkinson, Levant 6 (1974), 179-187

C. Coiiasnon, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, London 1974

id., Atti del IX Congresso lnternazionale di Archeologia Cristiano[[ 1975, Vatican City 1978, 163-166

Y. Tsafrir (op. cit.), 587-600

M. Broshi, IJNA 6 (1977), 349

S. de Sandoli, Calvary and the Holy Sepulchre: Historical Outline (The Holy Places of Palestine), Jerusalem 1984

S. Eisenstadt, BAR 13/2 (1987), 46-49

G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 2 (1987), 187-207

G.-W. Nebe, Zeitschrift fur die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 78 (1987), 153-161

J. D. Purvis, Jerusalem, The Holy City: A Bibliography (op. cit.), 320-334

G. R. Stone, Buried History 24 (1988), 84-97

Y. Boiret, MdB 61 (1989), 41-43; N. Kenaan Kedar, ibid., 37-40

M. Biddle and B. Kjolbye-Biddle, PEQ 122 (1990), 152

A. Recio Veganzones, Christian Archaeology in the Holy Land: New Discoveries (V. C. Corbo Fest.), Jerusalem 1990, 571-589

Walker(op. cit.), 235-281

D. Pringle, BAlAS IO (1990-1991), 108-110

J. M. O'Connor, Les Dossiers d'Archiologie, 165-166 (1991), 78-87

J. Patrich, Ancient Churches Revealed, Jerusalem (in prep.).

Bibliography from Stern et al (2008)

S. Gibson & J. E. Taylor, Beneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem: The Archaeology and Early History of Traditional Golgotha (PEF Monographs: Series Minor 1), London 1994

ibid (Reviews) LA 44 (1994), 725–729. — BAIAS 14 (1994–1995), 64–66. — IJNA 24/1 (1995), 81–82. — PEQ 127 (1995), 173. — BAR 22/4 (1996), 16–17

M. Biddle, The Tomb of Christ: History, Structural Archaeology and Photogrammetry, Stroud, Gloucestershire 1999

ibid. (Reviews) RB 106 (1999), 441–446. — MdB 125 (2000), 59. — PEQ 134 (2002), 173–176. — JRA 15 (2002), 688–690

id. (et al.), La chiesa del Santo Sepolcro a Gerusalemme, Milano 2000

id. (et al.), The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, New York 2000

C. Joffe, Armenian Mosaics in the Holy Sepulchre Church (Calendar), 2000

J. Krüger, Die Grabeskirche zu Jerusalem: Geschichte-Gestalt-Bedeutung, Regensburg 2000

ibid. (Review) Antike Welt 32 (2000), 676–677

J. Seligman & G. Avni, ESI 111 (2000), 69*–70*

G. Avni (& J. Seligman), One Land—Many Cultures, Jerusalem 2003, 153–162

V. Clark, Holy Fire: The Battle for Christ’s Tomb, London 2005

J. Krüger, Saladin und die Kreuzfahrer (Publikationen der Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen 17

Schriftenreihe des Landesmuseums für Natur und Mensch, Oldenburg, 37

eds. A. Wieczorek et al.), Mainz am Rhein 2005, 31–36

C. Morris, The Sepulchre of Christ and the Medieval West: From the Beginning to 1600, Oxford 2005.

Wikipedia pages

Calvary

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Church of the Holy Sepulchre

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kmz's

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kmz	Description	Reference
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Jerusalem - Church of the Holy Sepulchre