The Tale Of The Church Of The Resurrection
There is evidence of early Christians at the site of the church of the holy sepulcher many years before the Roman occupation, as early as the time of the resurrection.
Emperor Hadrian executed a pagan temple "temple to Aphrodite" to cover the church, which left it buried for over 300 years, until Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity. He followed the Holy sites of huis religion and constructed new churches all around the holy land, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, around 326 AD, without hesitation his most important work. The tomb of Christ was revealed and a church constructed around it while doing that the Rock of Golgotha was found.
According to the legend during the excavations, Constantine's mother St. Helena supposedly discovered the True Cross near the tomb, a sick old man was asked to touch it and had healed was the verification of the discovery. The early (and bigger) Church of Constantine suffered severe damages by fire in 614AD at the time of the Persian invasion, removing the True Cross that Emperor Heraclius triumphantly restored 15 years later, to the rebuilt Church.
Muslims took over the city in 638. Caliph Omar didn't pray in it, in that way he prevented that it convert it into a worship place for his followers. The Church remained a Christian place of worship until 1009, when Caliph Hakim brutally and repeatedly took at destroying the Church's east and west walls, but the north and south walls were likely protected by the rubble from further damage.
In1048 Emperor Constantine Monomachos provided money to the poor Christian population of the Holy city for reconstruction under limiting conditions forced upon by the caliphate. As money was scarce they only rebuilt a part of the original Church. And so only the courtyard and the rotunda remained. The rotunda was converted into a church.
After capturing Jerusalem 1099 this was the church where the knights of the First Crusade arrived to sing their Te Deum. Godfrey of Bouillon, the Crusader chief (later crowned the first king of Jerusalem), declared himself Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. The Crusaders only began work in 1112. First building a monastery covering the remains of where the Constantinian basilica used to be, The Constantinian courtyard was covered with a Romanesque church (1149), connected to the rotunda by an arched doorway. The bell tower was added in 1170.
The primary care takers of the church, first appointed when Crusaders held Jerusalem, are the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic churches. During the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syrian Orthodox were given limired responsibilities, including a number of structures within and around the building. Times and location of worship for each Church are set by an agreement.
It is a rather unique place, missing much of the glamour of other Churches as it is a mix of construction periods and buildersarchitectures of many different beliefs, but at the center still lays the Stone of the Sepulcher, a holy stone passing on a holy feeling to believers who come in contact with it.
Emperor Hadrian executed a pagan temple "temple to Aphrodite" to cover the church, which left it buried for over 300 years, until Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity. He followed the Holy sites of huis religion and constructed new churches all around the holy land, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, around 326 AD, without hesitation his most important work. The tomb of Christ was revealed and a church constructed around it while doing that the Rock of Golgotha was found.
According to the legend during the excavations, Constantine's mother St. Helena supposedly discovered the True Cross near the tomb, a sick old man was asked to touch it and had healed was the verification of the discovery. The early (and bigger) Church of Constantine suffered severe damages by fire in 614AD at the time of the Persian invasion, removing the True Cross that Emperor Heraclius triumphantly restored 15 years later, to the rebuilt Church.
Muslims took over the city in 638. Caliph Omar didn't pray in it, in that way he prevented that it convert it into a worship place for his followers. The Church remained a Christian place of worship until 1009, when Caliph Hakim brutally and repeatedly took at destroying the Church's east and west walls, but the north and south walls were likely protected by the rubble from further damage.
In1048 Emperor Constantine Monomachos provided money to the poor Christian population of the Holy city for reconstruction under limiting conditions forced upon by the caliphate. As money was scarce they only rebuilt a part of the original Church. And so only the courtyard and the rotunda remained. The rotunda was converted into a church.
After capturing Jerusalem 1099 this was the church where the knights of the First Crusade arrived to sing their Te Deum. Godfrey of Bouillon, the Crusader chief (later crowned the first king of Jerusalem), declared himself Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. The Crusaders only began work in 1112. First building a monastery covering the remains of where the Constantinian basilica used to be, The Constantinian courtyard was covered with a Romanesque church (1149), connected to the rotunda by an arched doorway. The bell tower was added in 1170.
The primary care takers of the church, first appointed when Crusaders held Jerusalem, are the Greek Orthodox, the Armenian Apostolic and Roman Catholic churches. During the 19th century, the Coptic Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Syrian Orthodox were given limired responsibilities, including a number of structures within and around the building. Times and location of worship for each Church are set by an agreement.
It is a rather unique place, missing much of the glamour of other Churches as it is a mix of construction periods and buildersarchitectures of many different beliefs, but at the center still lays the Stone of the Sepulcher, a holy stone passing on a holy feeling to believers who come in contact with it.