Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and AdventureConder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
History
Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure
Conder, C. R. (Claude Reignier)
Palestine -- Description and travel
We are thus able to identify the site chosen by Constantine in the
fourth century, with that recognised in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and
eighth centuries. The chapels of Modestus were destroyed, according to
contemporary writers, in 1009 A.D. by the mad Khalif Hakem, but were
restored in 1048. From the year 1033 down to 1099 A.D. innumerable
pilgrimages took place, but accounts of the buildings are not known. The
Crusaders, however, replaced the third system of churches by a
magnificent cathedral, and united once more the Sepulchre and Calvary
under one roof. Their erection dated from 1103 A.D., and remained intact
till 1808, when it was partly destroyed by fire; the southern façade is
however still attributable to the twelfth century. Of the position of
the Crusading site there is also no doubt, and it is shown on charts of
the fourteenth century. Sæwulf, in 1102 A.D., places the site of Calvary
“on the _declivity_ of Mount Sion,” thus agreeing with Eucherius, who
had described it in the fifth century as “placed outside Mount Sion,
where a knoll of scanty size exists to the north.” Both these
expressions fit well, as the plan will show, with the actual site of the
present building.
We approach the church from the south, where is an open court in which,
according to the legend, the Wandering Jew stays for a moment once in
every century to beg admission, and hears a voice which bids him resume
his endless journey. In front of us rise the beautiful Gothic doorways,
the pillars scrawled over with the names of pilgrims, and with dates
from the fourteenth century downwards; beneath our feet lies old Philip
D’Aubigny, close by the threshold, and over his head each year thousands
of pilgrims press through the narrow portal.
Passing through the doorway we enter the vestibule, in which is the
Stone of Unction, a slab of marble with lanterns of ground-glass hung
above it. On the left is the diwân of the Turkish custodians, to the
right the stairs of the Chapel of Calvary, beneath which is the place
where the “rent in the rock” is shown, and where were once the tombs of
Godfrey and Baldwin. Immense wax candles, reaching half-way to the lofty
roof, flank the Stone of Unction, which is devoutly kissed by the
pilgrims. Passing round it to the left, the rotunda of the church is
reached; to the right a narrow passage, with small chapels, runs behind
the apses of the Greek Church, and here a flight of steps leads down to
the subterranean Chapel of Helena, with its picturesque lighting and
heavy eighth-century basket-work capitals; beneath this again is the
dark cave so suggestively named “Chapel of the Invention of the Cross.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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