For centuries the heart of Christian Jerusalem has been the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Erected in memory of the final events of Christ’s Passion – where Jesus was crucified, buried and rose again – this magnificent basilica is a fitting home to the last five Stations of the Cross.
Associated with legends of Adam’s tomb, a small rise just outside the city walls had long reminded Jerusalem residents of a human skull, Golgotha in Aramaic. An ancient quarry here had been turned into the city’s burial ground, with family tombs cut into the rock (Beth Shearim necropolis, pages 80/1). Under Roman occupation the “place of the skull” became where they crucified common criminals – and Jesus Christ.
For over a century the early Christians preserved the memory of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection here despite increasing Roman persecution. Emperor Hadrian finally destroyed Jerusalem in 135 AD and covered the site with a shrine to Venus and a statue of Jupiter. When Constantine adopted Christianity two centuries later, his mother Helena came on a pilgrimage and found that Hadrian had not razed Christ’s tomb as feared, only covered it with rubble. Clearing this away work was completed on the first great basilica here in 335.
Burned by the Persians in the 7th century, Constantine’s original basilica was rebuilt only to be destroyed again in 1009 by the Arab caliph al-Hakim. Restored a generation later, it was the sorry state of Christianity’s core symbol that ignited Europe to the passion of the Holy Crusades.
Entering Jerusalem in 1099 and finding the new structure unsuitable, the Crusaders rebuilt the church, extending it to include the site of the crucifixion at Calvary not part of Constantine’s original monument. Since then the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has suffered fire, earthquake, wars and natural deterioration. The last major construction was carried out in the 19th century, giving the final touches to a church that is now visited by millions every year.
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha; where they crucified him. John 19:17-18
This page is part of the book The Holy Land of Jesus
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