Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Also referred to as The Holy Sepulchre, Calvary, Golgotha

Before visiting this place, pilgrims often have a deep desire to feel holy in this place, the place commemorating, the death and resurrection of Jesus. So often, however, this place can disappoint as a visit here as visitors and guides shout, people push and even the religious denominations express their differences in sometimes un-Christian ways. YET, the mass of humanity that meets here speaks of the history of the world: expectations and dreams, reality and suffering. It is a place beyond all places a compromise and contradiction yet a place of raw faith and devotion.

In the 4th century Queen Helena, mother of Constantine the emperor made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land as her son adopted Christianity as the official religion of the empire. At this spot she was told by local Christians, who had remained faithful despite numerous persecutions, that this was the spot of the death and resurrection of Jesus. In an earlier attempt to stamp out this new religion the emperor Hadrian had erected a temple obliterating the former landscape. Under the direction of Helena, engineers cut away the rock surrounding the original tomb and covered it with a small chapel (rotunda). Some 40 meters away was the knoll referred to as Calvary, this was squared off and a courtyard built. Eventually a five-naved basilica was built measuring over 160m long. This building was destroyed in the 11th century and rebuilt in the 12th, but on a smaller scale, remnants of the original building can be seen on the roof of the present church.