The Church of the Holy Sepulchre , also called Church of the Resurrection (in Greek: Ναός της Αναστάσεως, Naos tis Anastaseos ; in Géorgien: Agdgomis Tadzari ; in Armenian: Surp Harutyun ) by the Christian of the East, is a Christian church located in the Old city of Jerusalem. This place is regarded as the Saint saints for most of the Christians who venerate it particularly. It is indeed about the sanctuary built around the supposed place of the Crucifixion of the Christ (Golgotha) as of the place where he would have been buried (the sepulchre or tomb of Jesus) and where he would have ressuscity ( Anastasis , in Greek “Resurrection”). The church became an important place of pilgrimage as from the 4th century.
Today it is the place where seat the Greek-Orthodoxe Patriarche of Jerusalem and the Archiprêtre Catholique of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre.
History
Before the crucifixion
According to the excavations carried out in the current Basilica by the franciscain Virgilio Corbo in the years 1960, of the traces of sizes of stone and culture were put at the day. They clearly showed a use of the Mount of the Golgotha before its mention in the New Testament. Out of the city, the place was used as career of stone " malaki" as of the VIII E. Thereafter, with I er, the cavities were covered with ground and the fur place transformed into garden. It is the garden of Golgotha about which the Gospels speak. In addition, of the traces of cultures were found in the cave of the Invention of the Cross. In same time, a whole network of sepulchral caves was built in the west of the career. The tombs were dug in high vertical rock faces; among the latter one finds called, according to the use, the " fall from Joseph d' Arimathie ".
The passion of Christ
See also: Golgotha (Martyrdom), Passion of Christ, Way of Cross
The Crucifixion, the setting with the tomb and the Résurrection are the ultimate stages of the passion of Christ. The four Gospels indicate to us that the place was “out of the walls”, “close to a road” and “close to the city” (Jn 19:20), on the “Golgotha”, also called “Place of the Cranium” (MT 27:33, Mc 15:22, LLC 23:22 and Jn 19:17), which was a “garden before”. (Jn 19:41) the Christ moreover was put in a “new tomb” (Jn 19:41, LLC 23:33 and MT 27:59) which was located “not far from there”.
The archaeological truth confirms the topography of the Writings. Moreover, the assumption of the “Tomb of the Garden”, more in north of the Old city of Jerusalem and famous at the beginning of the 20th century, is for a long time abandoned with the profit to remember it traditional with the Golgotha.
Archaeological research seems to show that fall it from Jesus had been dug in a excentré rock solid mass compared to the career. The owner, Joseph d' Arimathie, during the years 30 of our era, had started to prepare a family burial at this place. This new tomb consisted of a low and narrow entry, closed by a large stone. With the end, a driving hall with the funerary room was. Only one bench had been cut in the rock at the Northern side on the right of the entry but it is extremely possible that Joseph d' Arimathie had imagined to carry out two other benches on the west coasts and South to supplement the family burial. The crucifixon of Jesus probably had to upset his projects and it made this tomb, its place of burial. At present, she is venerated and recognized by the Christians as being the place where its body rested and ressuscita. Today, the tomb is locked up in a building in Marbre.
Golgotha during Antiquity
Eusèbe de Césarée describes in its “Life of Constantin” ( Vita Constantini ) how the site of Holy Sepulchre, become a place of devotion for the Christian community in Jerusalem, was covered thereafter with ground on which one built a pagan temple dedicated to Venus. Although Eusèbe de Césarée does not say much of it, it may be that it is about part of Jerusalem rebuilt by Hadrian in 135 and renamed Ælia Capitolina, after the repression of the Jewish Révolte of 70 and the Révolte of Bar Kokhba of 132 - 135.The Constantin emperor ordered towards 325/326 that the ancient site is discovered and required of Macaire of Jerusalem to build a church at the place even where was crucifié and buried Christ. The pilgrims of Bordeaux ( Itinerarium Burdigalense ) brought back the following facts in 333: “ There, now, on the order of the emperor Constantin, was built a basilica, i.e. a church of marvellous beauty, having at its sides of the tanks from where one draws from water and a basin with the back, where the small children are baptized ”.
Socrate the Scholastic (born towards 380), in her “ Ecclesiastical History ”, gives a precise description of discovered (begun again later by Sozomène and Théodoret). It underlines the big role which the Fouille S and construction played carried out by the mother of Constantin, Sainte-Hélène, with which is also credited the redécouverte with the Vraie Cross.
Constantin gave to Helene the task to build churches on the various sites which commemorated the life of Jesus-Christ: the Church of Holy Sepulchre commemorates the end of the lifetime of Jesus, the Basilica of Éléona on the Mount of Olives is the place even where Jesus would be ridden to the sky, the Église of the Nativity to Bethlehem commemorates the beginning of it. It also made build a church at the entry of Hebron.
The church of Constantin was built near the place of the Crucifixion and connected three churches set up out of the three various holy sites, including:
- large a basilica (the Martyrium visited by the nun Égérie towards 380),
- a Atrium closed by columns (a triportic ) and built around the traditional rock of the martyrdom
- a Rotunda, called Anastasis (" Résurrection"), in which a Grotte was identified by Helene and Macaire of Jerusalem as being the place of burial of Jesus.
Since, the pilgrimage towards the most eminent symbol of Christendom developed: the routes towards the Holy Land then constituted the pilgrimage to which the Westerners attached the most importance. The duration of a pilgrimage in Jerusalem could last of a few months to a few years, and the innumerable dangers made that a pilgrim on two did not return from there.
Holy Sepulchre with the Middle Ages
The splendor of the buildings constantiniens on the ground of the garden of Golgotha lasted of 335 with 614.
The building was touched by a fire in 614 when the troops Perse S of Khosro II, led by the General Romizane (called Schahr-Barâz, the royal wild boar), invaded Jerusalem and seized the Vraie Cross.
The patriarch of Alexandria Eutychès writes in his annals: " The emperor Chosroes II sent his Schahrbaraz general… It destroys the churches of Constantin, that of the Martyrdom and that of Holy Sepulchre and it destroyed most of the ville"
In 630, the Emperor Héraclius, having overcome Persians, went triumphantly in Jerusalem and restored the Vraie Cross with the rebuilt church of Holy Sepulchre.
The first construction could be repaired because the buildings, while being seriously damaged, had however remained upright.
The patriarch Modeste re-used materials of the church to build a less imposing monument.
Among the innovations of the restoration of Modeste it is advisable to indicate the cover of the Martyrdom by a vault to pilot wheels.
The Christian pilgrim Arculfe with carried out diagrams starting from wax tablets. Thanks to his work, there is a description of the building of 680 and a plan.
The Moslem period
Under the Abbasid dynasty
In 638 the arrival of the Arab conquerors did not involve particular modifications in the sanctuary. Under the Moslem domination it remained a Christian church. The first laws Musulman be protected the various Christian sites from the city and in particular Holy Sepulchre. They prohibited in particular their destruction and their use as place of dwelling. Here how Eutychius, patriarch of Alexandria, described the events relating to the Arab conquest: " Omar ibn Al-Khattab and its generals left the Syria towards Jerusalem to besiege the City. The Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius went near Omar ibn Al-Khattab, which granted her protection to the inhabitants of the City at the end of a letter given to this patriarch. Omar ibn Al-Khattab guarantees the safeguard of the Christian sites and gave order to its men not to destroy these sites nor to use them like habitations." The account of Eutychius reports that Omar ibn Al-Khattab visited the church of Resurrection and stopped to sit down under its porch; but, at the time of the prayer, it moved away from the church and made its prayer outwards. It feared that the future generations interpret and take as pretext this gesture to transform the church into mosque. Eutychius added that Omar ibn Al-Khattab had written a decree prohibiting to the Moslems to meet in this place to request there.
The second church was destroyed by an earthquake in 746.
At the beginning of the 9th century a violent one seism damaged the cupola of Anastasis. The damage was restored in 810 by the Thomas Patriarch.
In 935 the Christians succeeded in preventing that a Mosquée is not built in a place juxtaposed in Basilique.
In 938 the Holy Sepulchre was new once burnt. Fire was engulfed in the Basilica, the Aprotique and even in Anastasis.
In 841, the church undergoes a incendie.
again
In 966, because of a defeat of the Moslem armies in Syria a riot burst and was followed reprisals. The Basilica was once again burnt. The doors and the roof burned, the patriarch was assassinated.
But all these disasters damaged especially the timber structures. The damage could be repaired at the price of great sacrifices on behalf of the Christian community, plunging the latter in the destitution.
Under the dynasty Fatimide
When the Egyptian caliphs Fatimides took Jerusalem in 969, the situation of the Christians became more précaire.To the beginning of the reign of the dynasty fatimide, in particular under the reign of the Caliph Al-Aziz, one gives their still rather great freedom.
But the October 18th 1009, the original building of the Holy Sepulchre was completely destroyed by the Caliph Fatimide and Chiite Al-Hakim Bi-Amr Allah.
The Shelter, the walls is and western as well as the roof of the tomb sheltered and cut in the rock were destroyed or deteriorated (the contemporary versions vary), but the walls north and south were fortunately protected thanks to the remains caused by the width from the dommages.
Here how the Arab historian Yahia Ibn Sa' id describes this event:
“They seized all the pieces of furniture which were in the church and destroyed them completely; they left only that whose destruction was very difficult. They destroyed also the Martyrdom and the church of Saint Constantin and all that was in the vicinity, and they tried to eliminate the crowned vestiges. This destruction began Tuesday fifth day before the end of the month of Saffar (August 15th, 1009). ”
Also called the “insane caliph”, Al-Hakim Bi-Amr Allah, persecuted the Christians and lasting more than eleven years proscribes the pilgrimages; it was interdict with the Christians to request in the ruins.
P.J. Vatikiotis explains why this hostile attitude taken by Al-Hâakim could be explained by the historical context where the economic life and social had worsened (in particular the critical period of 999 with 1005 where a great famine prevailed). In the middle of this worrying situation, several members of the population were extremely disturbed by the increasing prosperity of the Ahl Al-Kitâb (Jewish and Christian) and their disproportionate power in État".
The destruction of the Holy Sepulchre caused strong reactions, often irrational in Europe. For example, the monk of the Abbey of Cluny, Raoul Glaber, showed the Jews to be the cause of these misfortunes. It in result that the Jews were driven out of Limoges and of many other French cities. Finally, this destruction is one of the causes which explains the Croisades to come and in particular that of which the pope Urbain II in 1095 serves to invite the Christians to release the Holy Sepulchre.
They were only several years after the Christians had the permission to rebuild the sanctuary. It was the result of a Peace treaty between the Byzantine Emperor Jean Argyropoulos and the successor of Al-Hakim. After the death of Al-Hakim, the pilgrimages began again. One rebuilt the Holy Sepulchre and many churches. Groups of pilgrims came regularly from Europe. The rebuilding undoubtedly took place between 1030 and 1048.
Work began under the reign of the emperor Constantin IX.
A series of small Chapelle S were set up on the site in 1048 but according to strict conditions imposed by the Califat.
The architects of the Empire, as of their arrival in Jerusalem, determined impossibility of restoring all that was built by Constantin.
The Byzantine architects saved the rotunda above the Sepulchre but they did not rebuild the immense basilica of Constantin the Large one, who went from the Martyrdom to main street of the market. They decided to preserve only the Anastasis , by associating to him large a Abside with the East and several vaults on the ground of the place of the garden and instead of the Martyrium . A higher gallery was added in the rotunda. Work was completed between 1042 and 1048. During this rebuilding the Eastern Porch, the Martyrium and the Gantry of the garden disappeared.
L' site remained a field of ruins until the arrival of the Croisés.
Malgré these changes new architecture presented an artistic style of great quality. Mosaics recovered the walls and the cupola. The Russian Abbé Daniel, which visited Jerusalem at that time, gave a description of it:
" The Church of Resurrection is of form round and pressed on twelve columns monoliths and six pilasters. The pavement is made very beautiful flagstones of marble. It has six doors and of the platforms equipped with twelve columns representing the Prophètes saints; beautiful mosaics are under the ceiling and on the platforms.
the furnace bridge is surmounted by an Icon of Christ. With the top of the major Furnace bridge shows itself a mosaic representing the exaltation of Adam. The Rise of Christ is represented in the apse. Annunciation on the two pilasters close to the furnace bridge.
the cupola of the church is not enclosed by a stone vault, but by wood beams, interlaced between them. The church has an opening at its top. Holy Sepulchre is placed under this cupola ouverte".
The traveller Musulman Nasir-I Khusraw describes also the Holy Sepulchre in 1047: “the current church is a very great construction which can contain 8.000 people. The building is very skilfully built coloured marbles, with an ornamentation and sculptures. Inside, the church is decorated everywhere of Byzantine embroidery worked with gold and tables. And they represented Jesus - that peace is with him - who is sometimes shown rising an ass. There exist also tables representing of other prophets, Abraham, for example, and Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob with his son - that peace is with them all… In the church one finds a painting divided into two parts representing the Sky and the Hell. A part shows saved with the Paradises, whereas the other described damnés in Hell, with all that there is over there. Undoubtedly there does not exist other place in the world with a similar painting. In the church sat a great number of priests and monks who read the Gospel and say prayers, day and night they are occupied in this way.”
The period cross E (1099 - 1187)
The First Crusade was perceived as an armed pilgrimage but no crusader could consider his complete voyage if it had not carried out a prayer with Holy Sepulchre. The site was taken again by the knight S of the First Crusade the July 15th 1099 and they undertook its rebuilding. Here the account of the catch of Jerusalem by Raymond d' Aguilers, which, with the exaggerations of use in a chronicle of this kind, testifies to the importance of the site for the crusaders: “After the catch of the city, it was beautiful to see the devotion of the pilgrims in front of the Sepulchre of the Lord and how their joy appeared by singing with God a new song. And their heart offered to victorious God and triumphing over the inexpressible praises in words…” .The chief of the crusaders, Godefroy de Bouillon, became the first monarch Latin of Jerusalem but decided not to use the title of " King " during its life, declaring itself simply: Advocatus Sancti Sepulchri , " Solicitor (Protective or Defender) of Holy Sepulchre ". It took the simple title of baron. He did not want to carry a gold crown on the place where Christ had carried a Couronne of spines. Moreover, the clerks estimated, that the holy Place belonged to the Church and that they were to constitute a kind of seigniory ecclesiastical whose crusaders were only the laic defenders.
In 1100, Albert of Aix wrote in connection with Godefroy de Bouillon at the time of the catch of Jerusalem in June 1099: “while all the Christian people made a dreadful devastation of the Sarrasins, the duke Godefroy, abstaining from any massacre, stripped its armor and, being wrapped of a wool clothing, left barefeet out of the walls and, according to the enclosure external of the city in all humility, returning then by the door which faces the mountain of the Olive-trees, it went to be presented in front of the sepulchre of our lord Jesus-Christ, alive sons of God, pouring tears, pronouncing prayers, singing praises of God and returning graces to him to be judged worthy to see what it had always so ardently desired”.
As of its installation in Jerusalem, it attempted to structure around the Tomb of Christ, a mixed community, made up of Chanoine S secular and knight S, crusaders remained out of Holy Land. The latter set up a group called militate sancti Sepulcri (knights of the Holy Sepulchre). The Ordre of the Holy Sepulchre was thus created. These knights had the role of protecting the crowned burial and its goods. Among the 115 knights, one found a lord of the name of Hugues de Payens which will become in 1129 the first Master of a new religious order, the Ordre of the Temple.
The Higoumène Daniel visited the city in 1106 and brought back following description: “the church of Resurrection is of form circular; it includes/understands twelve monolithic columns and six pillars, and it is paved very beautiful flagstones of marble. There exist six entries and galleries with sixty columns. Under the ceilings, above the galleries, the saints prophets are represented in mosaic as if they were alive; the furnace bridge is surmounted by a portrait of Christ in mosaic. The dome of the church is not closed by a stone vault, but it is made of a structure of beams out of wooden, so that the church is open in its upper part. Holy Sepulchre is under this open dome.”
The chronicler Guillaume de Tyr reports the rebuilding of the Holy Sepulchre (cf Schéma) in the middle of the 12th century. The crusaders renovated the church according to the Romance style and added a Clocher to it. They restored the Dome of the Byzantine church and the Sainte-Hélène crypt. In 1144, the interior court is molten in a monument of Romance style composed of a surmounted basilica of a dome, between the church Sainte-Hélène and the Rotunda. For this period, the church of the Holy Sepulchre has had two domes, and the five most crowned sites Christianity are sheltered. The Holy Sepulchre is rebuilt according to the plan of the Croix. The July 15th 1149 is devoted the chorus of the crusaders, which replaces the old court with open sky connecting the rotunda to the church of Constantin. For the inauguration of the new basilica one engraved inscriptions in gold letters on the bronze door. One could read there: " This holy Place was devoted by the blood of Christ, our own dedication cannot thus nothing add to its holiness. But the building raised around this sanctuary and above was devoted on July 15th by the Foucher patriarch in the fourth year of its patriarchate and by other prelates and for the fifth birthday of the catch of the city which at that time resplendissait as much as very pure gold. It was in the year 1149 of the birth of Our Lord ". the inauguration have the July 15th 1149, date symbolic system of the catch of Jerusalem by the crusaders 50 years earlier. The restorations unified the various holy places thus. These last were carried out during the reign of the queen Mélisende in 1149. It is during this period that many Christian traditions related to the life of Jesus are instituted, in particular that of the Via Dolorosa. No major rebuilding was undertaken since. The church became the seat of the first Latin Patriarch and was also the place of the Scriptorium of the kingdom.
The period Ayyoubide
The church and the remainder of the city were lost for the Crusaders with Saladin. Besides the historian Aldine Imad writes on this subject that the Francs considered a collective suicide in the church of the Holy Sepulchre. From this moment, the Christians see prohibited stay, except for the Eastern Christians, who are in charge of the maintenance of the Holy Sepulchre. Nevertheless, a treaty established after the Third crusade tolerated the visit of the site for the pilgrims chrétiens.Whereas it was excommunicated, the emperor Frederic II recovered the city and the church following a treaty signed at the 13th century. This situation have for result curious to strike the holiest church of the Christendom of prohibited.
In 1244, the Turkish S Khwarezm iens plundered Jerusalem, massacred the Christians and devastated the Holy Sepulchre.
Holy Sepulchre at the time modern
At the 15th century, during the Othoman period, the conflicts between Moslems and Christians made their appearance. The Holy Sepulchre was once more devastated.In spite of the continuous increase of the pilgrims since the Middle Ages and during the modern time, following the example Jerusalem, the site was not any more maintained and was degraded. Felix Fabri, a German Dominican brother, made there allusion after having carried out two Holy Land pilgrimages, the first in 1480 and the second in 1483: " The city is in a great state of desolation. Many buildings are destroyed unhappy Jerusalem still suffered, suffer and will suffer later of more than seats, degradations, destruction and terrors that no other city with the monde" . Also, the monks Franciscains made improvements while renovating in 1555 Saint-Sépulcre.On renovated in particular the plates of Marbre recovering the Tomb. In 1648, the dome was restored. Again threatened of collapse in 1719, it was consolidated. The mosaic which covered it was fragmented in small pieces which were sold like memories.
Holy Sepulchre of the contemporary time at our days
A fire again seriously deteriorated the structure in 1808 and caused the collapse of the dome which broke decorations external of the Shelter. The Rotunda and the outside of the Shelter were rebuilt between 1809 and 1810 by the Komminos architect of Mytilène according to an architectural style Othoman Baroque. Fire does not reach the interior of the Shelter and decorations in Marbre of the Tomb.The current dome was built between 1863 and 1868 thanks to financial aids of the governments French, Russian and Turkish. The modern restorations most important started in 1959. Work of restoration of the dome was carried out between 1994 and 1997. The red coating of Marbre plated against the Shelter by Komminos aged badly and is detached from the subjacent structure; since 1947 it is maintained in place thanks to a metal external structure installed by the British. No project is considered for its restoration.
Status quo
Since the restoration of 1555, the control of the church alternated between the Franciscain S and the Orthodoxes. Under the Ottoman Empire, each community could obtain, on bottom of corruption, a Firman granted temporarily by the “Sublime Door” what caused confrontations violent one regularly. In 1767, tired of the quarrels, the “Sublime Door” published a Firman which divided the church between the claimants. It was confirmed in 1852 by another Firman which taken permanent provisions via a status quo establishing a territorial division enters the communities.The first guards are the Greek orthodoxe Église, the Roman Catholic church and the Armenian apostolic Église. At the 19th century, the orthodoxe Coptes, the orthodoxe Ethiopian and the orthodoxe Syriaques obtained less important responsibilities associated with high places like with certain structures in and around Holy Sepulchre. In addition to this space distribution (with clean or common spaces), the division includes also a distribution of the hours of prayer and procession. These property rights and of use protected by the Status quo on the holy spot are guaranteed by article LXII of the treaty of Berlin (1878). Inside the building, the various vaults and holy places are furnished and decorated according to the habits and the rites with the religious community which holds the possession of it.
The establishment of the status quo did not stop old inclinations. A heat day of summer 2002, a monk Copte who was posted on a roof declared with the Ethiopian territory that his chair of the shaded place had been moved where it was. It was regarded as a hostile attitude by the Ethiopian ones. Eleven people were hospitalized following the dispute. This example is revealing perpetual conflict between orthodoxe the coptes and Ethiopian concerning the documents of title of the vault of Ethiopian (located on the roof of the vault of Grey waxbill). Since the beginning of the conflict, the government (as an political authority) chose not to intervene, preserving the hope that the two communities will solve the question between them.
Another incident take place in 2004 when at the time of the Orthodoxe celebrations of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a door of the Franciscaine vault was left open. That was taken as a sign of disrespect on behalf of the Orthodoxe ones and a pugilism burst. Certain individuals were stopped but nobody was seriously wounded.
In accordance with the status quo , no indicated part as common territory can be renovated without the assent of all the communities. When the communities are not able to get along, that with for consequence to cause negligences in repairs of the building which would need some however largely. After the seism of 1927, the political authority places from there (in accordance with the provisions of the Status quo) had to intervene to undertake urgent repairs. However, a simple small dissension delays certain urgent restorations in particular that of the Édicule. The Status quo would have to be modified but a simple change would be prejudicial at certain communities which refuse to give up their privileges. The edge of the window of the entry of the church is a minor sign but not less ridiculous of this situation. A scale out of wood was placed at this place formerly front 1852, at the moment when the status quo then included the doors and the edges of windows in common management. The scale is still present to date and in the same position where it was the centuries spent, the photograph and the Gravure attest some opposite.
None the communities controls the main entrance. In 1192, Saladin allocated this responsibility with two families Musulman are close. One entrusted to the Joudeh the guard of the Clé and the Nuseibeh had as a task to keep the door. These functions are still into force today. Twice a day, a family member Joudeh brings the key to a Nuseibeh which opens and firm the door.
Description of the Holy Sepulchre
The entry of the church is a simple door located at the level of the Transept southern. This narrow access path for a so great structure proved to be sometimes dangerous. Indeed, at the time of a fire which burst in 1840, a dozen pilgrims were trampled with death. In 1999 the various communities are reflected agreement to install a new exit door in the church, but it there have never report/ratio carried out for the realization of the latter.
At the present time, the Holy Sepulchre is divided into five great sections: Golgotha, the Tomb, the Basilica, the Corridor and the Crypt of the Cross. Six occupants share it: Latin Catholics, orthodoxe Greeks, Armenian Catholics, Syrians, Coptes and the Ethiopian ones
Inside, near to the entry, is the Pierre of the Oiling which one thinks that it is the place where the body of Jesus was prepared before being buried;
The Rotonde of Anastasis is on the left of the entry of the Holy Sepulchre right in lower part of largest of the two domes of the church. Located above the tomb of Jesus, the Rotonde is made of 18 Pilier S rounds in Marbre, which support the dome. The pillars are imprisoned in broad square blocks to resist the seisms. The diameter of the Rotunda is of 20,9 m and the cupola culminates to 21,5 m of the ground. In its center is the Édicule of the Holy Sepulchre which shelters the Tombe of Jesus including the Chapelle of the Angel (of Resurrection). The status quo gives rights to Orthodoxe, with the catholics like with the Churches Apostolic Armenian inside the tomb. The three communities can celebrate there the Divine Liturgy or the Messe the every day. It is also used within the framework of other ceremonies for special occasions, in particular the ceremony of the Easter Saturday or even the orthodoxe Cérémonie of fire crowned celebrated by the Patriarche Orthodoxe Greek of Jerusalem.
A vault Copte, on the Western side of the shelter and protected by a Trellis-work out of iron, shelters a semicircular stone fragment cut in an old visible monument under the furnace bridge. The furnace bridge is used by the orthodoxe coptes.
Behind the Rotunda is a vault cut very irregularly with the hand and which was to probably be the tomb of Joseph d' Arimathie. It is in this vault that the Orthodoxe Syrians celebrate to them Liturgie each Sunday. With the right-hand side of the sepulchre, on the south-eastern part of the Rotunda one can see the Chapelle of the Appearance reserved to the catholics. The Byzantine arch connects the Rotunda, construction of the 6th century, with the west and the crossed church, of the 12th century, in the east. On the east coast, vis-a-vis the Rotunda, is the church of Cross which constitutes the principal furnace bridge of the church; today it corresponds to the orthodoxe catholicon Greek.
In the church Grey waxbill, the pillars which support the second smaller dome are pillars of the 7th century. The Coupole was restored by the Crusaders. The Apse of the church, directed towards the east, was restored in 1850, then renovated again in the years 1980. The center of the church is marked of a round stone, which represents the Omphalos Mundi , the navel of the world for the Christians, in the same manner as the Rocher of the Foundation on the Mont of the Temple symbolizes the center of the world for the Jews.
In the east one can see large a Iconostase which delimits Greek the Orthodoxe sanctuary and which was before the Trône Patriarcal as well as the throne for the episcopal celebrations.
On the southern part of the furnace bridge, one reaches, via of Déambulatoire, with a staircase whose steps are covered with marble plates to avoid degradations and who leads to the Chapelle of the Martyrdom, (or of the Golgotha). It is thought that it is the place of the Crucifixion of Jesus. It is the part most luxuriously decorated with the church.
The principal furnace bridge belongs to the Orthodoxe Greeks and the catholics have a furnace bridge right at side. In the east, in the déambulatoire there is a staircase which goes down to the Vault Grey waxbill and which belongs to the Armenians. From there, thirteen steps lead to a crossed vault, the Chapelle of Discovered Cross, which is the cellar in which the Croix of Jesus and those of the two small drainage canals were found.
Let us note that the southern part, is divided into several parts: principal gates, the dome of Golgotha and the bell-tower. The principal gates are spillplates of carved archivolts of sheets of Acanthe and medallions. On the right gates, the dome of Golgotha surmounts the two stages of the building. On the left gates, the six stages original of the bell-tower are four today.
Authenticity of the place
Since the beginning of its construction in 335, the church of the Holy Sepulchre was always venerated like the authentic place of the Crucifixion and the burial of Jesus. As it was already evoked previously, as much Eusèbe de Césarée that Socrate the Scholastic evoke the tomb of Jesus as being the original place of veneration of the Christian community in Jerusalem. The community always remembered place even when the site was covered by the temple with Hadrian.
Eusèbe de Césarée insists in particular on the discovery of the tomb " It is offered to all those which come to be the visual witnesses about it, a clear and visible proof of the miracle whose this place was the scène" Life of Constantin, Chapter XXVIII.
The archeologist Martin Biddle of the Université of Oxford has advanced a theory according to which the expression " clear proof and visible" could be related to the Graffiti " it is the Tomb of Christ" , registered in the rock by Christian pilgrims before the construction of the Roman temple.
Similar Graffiti old are always visible in the Catacombes of Rome; they indicate in particular the tombs of particularly venerated saints.
At the 19th century, a certain number of scholars disputed the fact that the Holy Sepulchre can be the real site of the crucifixion of Jesus and his burial. They supported that the church was inside the walls, whereas others (e.g., the Hebrews 13:12) defended the thesis according to which the scenes were located outside the walls.
The morning after its arrival in Jerusalem in 1885, the general Charles Gordon identified a tomb in a rock face of a cultivated area, outside the walls. He regarded it as the most probable site of the burial of Jesus. He thus suggested the Jardin of the Tomb, located at the north of Holy Sepulchre in the surroundings of the Door of Damas and dating from the period of the Byzantine Empire. That would correspond to the description of Jean (19: 41): " However there was a garden with the place where it had been crucifié, and in this garden a tomb neuf" . This assumption is isolated today. In the garden, one can find a rock escarpé which contains two large cavities which resemble curiously in eyes of death's-head. This place is usually regarded as being the Jardin of the Tomb in order to distinguish it from the Holy Sepulchre. There remains always a place of pilgrimage (usually for the Protesting S) for those which doubt the authenticity of Anastasis and/or well for those which do not have the permission to be collected in the church.
However, it since was proven that the site was well actually located outside the walls at the time of the crucifixion. Archeology shows that the city knew three extensions to “north”. They gave place to as many successive ramparts. These enclosures were still visible in the year 70 of our era. Flavius Josèphe testifies some and describes them with precision. The first rampart was built by the king Ezéchias, at the end of the VIII E. Second was built by Asmonéens in second half of the II E. The third wall was extended by Hérode Agrippa Ier in 41 - 44 and surrounded only the site of the Holy Sepulchre, there whereas at the same time the surrounding garden evoked in the Bible should have been integrated too. Thus the Holy Sepulchre was well outside the ramparts, at the time of Jesus. Archeology confirms this theory for a rather long time: the Holy Sepulchre was well outside the first and second ramparts. Its sector was the place of exploition of careers since the VIII E and provided the stone to build Jerusalem. One extracted the blocks from stone by stages. In the abandoned parts of the layer of exploitation, one dug tombs. These archaeological data correspond to testimonys of the Évangiles.
It is advisable to quote the Israeli academic daN Bahat, former Archeologist of the town of Jerusalem: “We cannot be absolutely certain that the site of the church of the Holy Sepulchre is well the site of the tomb of Jesus, but we do not take place any other which can affirm contrary arguments of weight and we do not have really any reason to reject the authenticity of the place. ” (Bahat, 1986)
Counterparts of the Holy Sepulchre
There exist two counterparts of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, one with the the United States, Washington, and the other in France, with Angers.
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