Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Israel. Where is it located, hotels nearby, photos, videos, main shrines, how to get there

The Church of the Holy Sepulcher (or the Resurrection of Christ) is the greatest shrine of the Christian world and the most important place of worship for believers. Millions of pilgrims and tourists strive to get here, and the annual descent of the Holy Fire is awaited with bated breath in different parts of the planet, watching the process live.

Ancient walls, © Konstantin Pavlov

According to the Ottoman Treaty of 1853, the territory of the temple was clearly divided between six Christian denominations: Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian and Syrian. The areas controlled by each of the churches remained within the boundaries they were at the time the document was signed. Not only the main shrines, chapels, altars and stairs are distributed, but also the time of services, the responsibilities of the parties and the rules for using common shrines are established. Now everything, even the most insignificant decisions, are made collectively. If at least one of the heads of the governing faiths expresses disagreement or doubt, then it will be impossible to perform even the most harmless action in the temple.

Due to the constant emergence of disputes, it often came to hand-to-hand combat, and they occurred not only in the distant Middle Ages, but also in the more civilized 21st century. Today, the main temple relics are owned by the Jerusalem Patriarchates of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches, as well as the Catholic monastic order of the Franciscans. The administrative buildings of the religious complex house the headquarters of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church.

Frankish Chapel, © Konstantin Pavlov

Main shrines

The complex of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher includes:

Katholikon - an Orthodox church within a church;
The Holy Sepulcher is the Savior’s funeral bed and the main altar;
Golgotha is the hill where Jesus Christ was crucified;
Edicule - a compact chapel in the Rotunda;
The Stone of Confirmation is a consecrated copy of the slab (5 m long, 70 cm wide) on which Jesus was laid when he was taken down from the cross.

Catholicon, © Yucatan

Calvary

One of the two main shrines of the Christian world. Christ was crucified on the hill and, according to legend, Adam was buried. Golgotha was located outside of ancient Jerusalem and was used as a place for executing criminals. The rock is believed to have been formed from their skulls.

Edicule

The shrine is a small chapel with a dome. Inside there are two chapels: the Angel and the Holy Sepulcher with a stone bed. In the first there is a fragment of a stone placed on a pedestal, rolled away from the cave of Christ by an Angel, and two holes in the walls. The Holy Fire is transmitted through the north to the Orthodox, and through the south to the Armenians. On the western side of the Edicule is the chapel of the Copts.

The chapel was rebuilt several times. The last restoration was carried out in 2016–17. The walls of the chapel are made of white-yellow-pink marble, the facade is richly decorated, and unquenchable candles and lamps are installed near the Holy Sepulcher.

The Edicule is shared by Orthodox Greeks, Armenians and Catholics.

Edicule, © Official website of the Jerusalem Patriarchate

Descent of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

A special service is held annually on Holy Saturday, the eve of Orthodox Easter. The descent of the Holy Fire and its removal from the Edicule symbolizes the risen Christ. Fire is delivered to Orthodox churches in other countries on special flights.

Side chapels

There are several chapels on the territory of the complex, including:

Adam - with the head of Adam, which received the blood of Christ during the crucifixion;
Crown of Thorns - with the crown placed on the head of Jesus in Praetorium;
Finding the Life-Giving Cross - with the entrance to the Church of St. Helena;
Divisions of vestments (Razdelisha) - with icons depicting scenes of division of the seamless tunic (type of clothing) of Christ;
Mary Magdalene - with a marble circle marking the site of the appearance of the risen Jesus.

Under the arches of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher there are 5 stations of the Way of the Cross of Christ.

Adam's Chapel, © Official website of the Jerusalem Patriarchate

Golgotha - place of executions

Golgotha is a hill where, during the life of Christ, criminals were executed by crucifixion - the most shameful death. Translated, Golgotha means “place of the forehead.” In the cliff of Golgotha, in a small cave, they guarded criminals being brought to execution. Here, sitting on a stone, Christ awaited crucifixion, which is why the place is called the Prison of Christ .

In the square in front of Golgotha, the gathered people watched the execution of the criminal. The bodies and crosses of those crucified were thrown into a hollow near the rock, where they also threw the Cross of the Lord, covering it with earth and stones. On the instructions of Saint Helena, they excavated and discovered a cave in which Jesus Christ was buried, the Life-giving Cross of the Lord, 4 nails and a tablet with the inscription: “INRI” (an abbreviation for Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews).

According to legend, Saint Helen discovered three crosses. To determine the real one, the crosses were applied one by one to the coffin of a recently deceased woman. When they touched the real one, the miracle of resurrection happened. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher was founded at the site of the find. The crosses of the thieves are indicated by black circles on the marble platform of Golgotha.

Description of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

The central facade is made in the Romanesque style. Initially, there were two portals 5 m high and 3 m wide. The left one is still in use, and the right one was blocked with stone during the period of Muslim rule of Jerusalem.

On the left side of the Holy Door you can see a column with a crevice formed by a lightning strike at the time of the Descent of the Holy Fire in 1580. That year he did not appear to the Armenian Patriarch, who by cunning acquired the right to conduct the liturgy of the Descent of the Holy Fire. He went down to the Orthodox who remained outside the walls of the temple. Since then, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch has the exclusive right to liturgy. Representatives of other faiths have the opportunity to be present at the Edicule.

Crack in a column, © Konstantin Pavlov

The bas-reliefs that once decorated the building are now on display in one of the museums in Jerusalem. A wooden staircase can be seen under the second floor window. The Armenian monks climbed along it so as not to pass through the Greek Orthodox territory to their part of the temple. And although it has not been used for its intended purpose for a long time, the rarity is not removed, in accordance with the ban on any changes without unanimous permission.

To the right of the entrance is the chapel of the Franks, below it is the chapel of Mary of Egypt, and to the right is the door leading to the chapel of the Apostle John. In the northeastern part of the square there is an entrance to Golgotha, in the east there is the monastery of Abraham, in the west there is the Church of St. James and the chapel of the Myrrh-Bearing Women. To the south of the Holy Court is the Gethsemane courtyard, which houses a special relic - the shroud of the Virgin Mary.

Holy Court, © Official website of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Exterior design

The splendor of the temple corresponds to its high purpose. The main facade is made in the Romanov style . Initially, the entrance was decorated with a marble panel depicting the burial of the Savior and the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. Entrance to the temple with two large doors. During Muslim rule, the second door was closed with brickwork.

The left side of the portal is decorated with a white marble column - the Column of the Holy Fire, split by lightning during the first descent of the Holy Fire in 1634 on the holiday of Holy Saturday. On this day, Orthodox and Armenian Christians argued about the right to be the first to hold the service. During their bickering, a thundercloud burst into violent lightning, splitting the column and spawning the Holy Fire.

History of the main Christian temple

A holy site outside ancient Jerusalem associated with Jesus Christ was revered by early Christians even after the destruction of the city by the Roman Emperor Titus in 70 and the creation in 135 of the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina by Emperor Hadrian within the boundaries of what is now the Old City. During that period, among other buildings, the Temple of Venus was erected, which was located above the Cave of the Holy Sepulcher.

The first Christian church appeared on the supposed site of Golgotha thanks to the efforts of the mother of Constantine I the Great, Helen. Being already at a fairly advanced age, she decided to go from Rome to Jerusalem, claiming that she had a vision “of divine places closed by the wicked, which she was ordered to bring to light.” According to legend, a local resident helped Elena find the Cave of the Holy Sepulcher, as well as find the Life-Giving Cross and other shrines.

Calvary and Holy Sepulcher, © Yupi666

Built under Constantine I the Great, the Church of the Resurrection was consecrated in 335. The richly decorated complex included:

the temple-mausoleum of Anastasis with the Holy Sepulcher located in the center under a tent canopy;
The Great Basilica with an altar facing Anastasis and a crypt (an underground vaulted room) built on the site of the discovery of the Life-Giving Cross.

The buildings stood unchanged for almost three centuries, until the capture of Jerusalem by the Persians in 614. The buildings significantly damaged by them were restored with the participation of the Byzantine emperor by 629, and 8 years later the city was forced to surrender to the army of the Righteous Caliphate on condition of preserving Christian shrines. Four centuries later, the Fatimid caliph broke the treaty and initiated the destruction of Christian churches, accompanied by massacres of believers. As a result, the basilica was irretrievably lost.

Golgotha, © Official website of the Jerusalem Patriarchate

The next stage in the history of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher occurred in the first half of the 11th century, after the Byzantine emperor Constantine VIII, in exchange for the construction of a mosque in Constantinople, managed to agree with another Muslim ruler on the restoration of a Christian shrine in Jerusalem. During that period, several separate chapels and the Church of the Resurrection were built in the form of a rotunda - a cylindrical structure covered with a dome.

The appearance and decoration of the newly built complex was strikingly different from the splendor of the first temple. This injustice was corrected by the crusaders in the middle of the 12th century. They erected a majestic building that united the holy places. It was consecrated in 1149. A five-tier bell tower was also installed, which sank to its present level as a result of the earthquake of 1545.

At the end of the 12th century, after the expulsion of the Crusaders from Jerusalem, Sultan Saladin gave the right to keep the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and its opening/closing to two different Muslim families of Arab origin. This helped to stop the disputes between the heads of Christian denominations about who should be the first to open the Holy Door. The tradition is still alive - the male representative of the Judeh family keeps the keys, and the male representative of the Nuseibeh family opens/closes the temple. Powers are transferred exclusively by inheritance.

Chapel of Divide, © Official website of the Jerusalem Patriarchate

During the fire of 1808, the Edicule and the tent over Anastasis were damaged. The restoration was carried out by a multinational group of architects. The wooden dome of the Rotunda was replaced with a metal one, giving it its original appearance.

Significant reconstruction was planned to be carried out in the middle of the last century, but due to the outbreak of World War II, the work was postponed to a later date. They started in 1959 and continued in the 1990s and 2010s. In 2013, the belfry was replenished with a bell cast in Russia.

An unprecedented step was taken by the heads of Christian denominations in February 2022. In protest against the decision of the Israeli authorities to levy a city tax on church real estate and transfer part of the church lands to the state, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was closed indefinitely. The issue was resolved within three days, after which the shrines were reopened to pilgrims.

Catholicon

Katholikon is a Greek chapel, the largest and most beautiful part of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, the cathedral. Internal dimensions are 22.3 meters long and 13.7 meters wide. Above the Katholikon rises a large dome (Rotunda), decorated with multi-colored mosaics. On the dome there is a cross of extraordinary beauty.

The carved iconostasis is decorated with icons in gold frames. A huge chandelier (lamp) with Byzantine symbols hangs above the center of the temple. Not far from the entrance to the Catholicon - the Navel of the Earth (Omphalus vase).

The Omphalus Vase is a flower-shaped stone bowl made of yellow marble, decorated with carvings. In the center of the bowl is a ball, symbolizing the Earth and the center of the Christian world. For Christians, the symbolic center of the Earth is forever linked to the site of Christ's ascension.

Access to the chalice is prohibited for pilgrims; its safety is monitored by monks from local monasteries. The bowl is so light that it had to be chained to prevent it from constantly moving.

Services in the Temple

The schedule of services can be found at the Old Town gate leading to the Christian Quarter. At the Holy Sepulcher, liturgies are served alternately.

Greek Orthodox services:

on Saturdays - at 23:00 (winter) and midnight (summer);
on other days - at 23:30 (winter) and 00:30 (summer).

From 03:00 the liturgy is celebrated by the Armenian Church, and from 06:00 by Catholics.

The Divine Liturgy in the Katholikon begins at 07:00 (winter) and 08:00 (summer).

Joseph and Nicodemus

Kind and truthful, he was not afraid to ask Pilate to take the body of the crucified Nazarene. Having received permission, he took the Lord down from the cross. Having wrapped him in a shroud and carried out the funeral rites prescribed by the Jews, he transferred the body of the Savior to a coffin carved into the rock and rolled a stone onto it. The whole world knows this shroud under the name of Turin. In the biblical prophecies of Isaiah it is written: “He was assigned a grave with evildoers, but He was buried with a rich man.”

The Gospel says that Nicodemus brought myrrh and aloes to anoint the body of the Savior.

Historical moments

In Jerusalem, the stone of anointing is of great value, so its history can be traced back to ancient times. An interesting point is the fact that it belonged to different churches at different times. So, in Byzantine times, the shrine was located on the territory of the chapel of St. Mary, as a result, the chapel was demolished by the crusaders. There was a time when this exhibit was one hundred percent property of the Catholic Order of St. Francis of Assisi, this lasted exactly until 1810. Today, as already mentioned, this relic is the property of four churches.

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