Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre,[a] also known as the Church of the Resurrection,[b] is a fourth-century church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.[1] It is considered the holiest site in Christianity in the world and has been the most important pilgrimage site for Christians since the fourth century.
"Holy Sepulchre" redirects here. For other uses, see Holy Sepulchre (disambiguation).Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Active
13 September 335
Nikolaos Ch. Komnenos (1810 restoration)
c. AD 326
AD 335 (demolished in 1009, rebuilt in 1048)
8,000
3
Stone
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' 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, built under Constantine in the 4th century and destroyed by al-Hakim in 1009, were later reconstructed with modifications by Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and the Crusaders, resulting in a significant departure from the original structure.[4] 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.[5][6] 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.
Name[edit]
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[7] 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.
Influence[edit]
From the ninth century onward, the construction of churches inspired by the Anastasis was extended across Europe.[128] One example is Santo Stefano in Bologna, Italy, an agglomeration of seven churches recreating shrines of Jerusalem.[129]
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 ("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.[130]
Author Andrew Holt writes that the church is the most important in all Christendom.[131]
Custodians
Virtual tours