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The Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem: History and Future*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville
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Extract

In 1972 Fr Charles Coüasnon, O.P., gave the Schweich Lectures to the British Academy on this subject. As consultant architect to the restoration work he seemed well qualified to do so. But work continued until 1980, and it was not until 1982 that Fr Virgilio Corbo, O.F.M., published a definitive account of the work, Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme, in three handsome volumes. I did not succeed in obtaining a copy until 1984. Thus it was not surprising that Canon Ronald Brownrigg's Come, See the Place: the ideal companion for all travellers to the Holy Land, 1985, still treats Fr Couasnon as having had the last word, and prints plans some of which are erroneous. Only since then has an article in Le Monde de la Bible, Mars-Avril, Paris, 1984, no.33, in a number devoted entirely to the Holy Sepulchre, by Fr Florentino Dfez Fernandez, O.S.A.,3 reached me, describing in a summary form his excavations for the Greek Orthodox Community on the site of Golgotha, and for the Armenian Community behind the Crusader Chapel of St Helena. A definitive account of his work is eagerly awaited, for his work adds to our knowledge and corrects some previous misconceptions of the chronology of the site.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 119 , Issue 2 , April 1987 , pp. 187 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1987

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References

NOTES

1 Coüasnon, C., O.P., The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, O.U.P. 1974;Google ScholarCorbo, V. C., Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme, 3 vols, Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem, 1984.Google Scholar

2 Brownrigg, R., Come, See the Place, London, 1985;Google Scholar see also Murphy-O'Connor, J., OP, The Holy Land, 2nd edn, OUP, 1986.Google Scholar

3 “La recherche archéologique: la question de l'authenticité”, pp. 28–36.Google Scholar

4 Eusebius, , de Laudibus Constantini, 9,Google ScholarP.G. 20, 1369, referring to all Palestine.

5 Corbo, , op. cit, II,Google Scholar tav.3; cp. Baedeker, K., Palestine and Syria, Leipzig, 1912 edn, p. 48,Google Scholar which records a further section of the atrium under the Coptic hospice. See Pl. I.

6 See Pl. II.

7 Hoade, E., O.F.M., Guide to the Holy Land, 10th edn, 1979, pp. 107 ff.Google Scholar, gives a useful summary.

8 Vincent, L.-H., Baldi, D., Marangoni, L. and Barluzzi, A., Il Santo Sepolcro di Gerusalemme: Splendori, Miserie, Speranze, Bergamo, 1949,Google Scholar illustrated, and with numerous photographs of models. See Pl. III (1).

9 Anon., “Jerusalem Dome”, Concrete Quarterly 130, 07–09., 1981, pp. 10–11;Google Scholar anon., Le Saint-Sépulchre: Etudes et Projets de Restauration édité par les soins de la Custodie de Terre-Sainte, Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem, 1956,Google Scholar contains minutes of a number of meetings between the various parties, and submissions by various architects, including Sir Basil Spence. See Pl. III (2).

10 See below, p. 8, for a brief summary.

11 Rock, A., O.F.M., “The Status Quo of the Holy Places”, Holy Land Review, Spring–Winter (sic) 1980, pp. 58–64, esp. p. 58;Google ScholarCollin, B., Recueil de Documents concernant Jérusalem et les lieux saints, Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem, 1982, brings up to date the author's previous works with a full documentation, and, pp. 427–8, a valuable select bibli-ography.Google Scholar

12 Cust, L. G. A., “The Status Quo in the Holy Places”Google Scholar, in Collin, , op. cit., pp. 119–184;Google Scholar see also Zander, W., Israel and the Holy Places of Christendom, London, 1971,Google Scholar for a well-balanced account.

13 See n.8 above.

14 Seen.9 above.

15 Díez, , op. cit., pp. 33ff.;Google ScholarKenyon, K. M., The Bible and Recent Archaeology, London 1978, pp. 96ff.Google Scholar; idem, Archaeology in the Holy Land, 1979 edn (1985), pp. 334–5.Google Scholar

16 Corbo, , op. cit., pp. 29–32.Google Scholar

17 Idem, op. cit., p. 29: “cioè ad orto con probabile coltura di vite, fico, carrubo ed olivo.” No material archaeological evidence is cited in support of this assertion.

18 Jerome, Ep. LVIII.

19 Paulinusof Nola, Ep. xxxi; Eusebius, , Vita Constantini, 3 26.Google Scholar

20 Díez, , op. cit., pp. 34ff;Google Scholar illustrated Pl. VI (2)(a) and (b).

21 Pl. IV(1).

22 See n.5 above.

23 Wilkinson, J., “The Streets of Jerusalem”, Levant VII, 1973, pp. 118–35.Google Scholar

24 Avigad, N., Discovering Jerusalem, Oxford, 1984, p. 226;Google ScholarDov, Meir ben, “El Hallazgo de la Iglesia Nea, joya de la Jerusalén Bizantina”, Noticias Cristianos en Israel, xxvii, 1979,Google Scholar no.2.

25 Jerome, , Comm. in Matt., IV. xxiv, 15;Google ScholarComm. in Isa. ii, 19.Google Scholar

26 Migne, , PG XCII, 613–616.Google Scholar

27 Pl. V (1). I am obliged to Dr Rupert L. Chapman III for a photograph in the collection of the Palestine Exploration Fund which accords precisely with the Leningrad head kindly photographed for me by Professor Miers, S.. The find was first reported in the Illustrated London News, 1874;Google Scholar the account was repeated in the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement, 1874, pp. 7, 207ff.Google Scholar Details are given in Clermont-Ganneau, C., Archaeological Researches, I, 259ff.Google Scholar The find was made on an Arab property on the Nablus Road, some 30 m. N of the tomb of Queen Helena of Adiabene, 555 m. N of the Damascus Gate. Clermont-Ganneau had doubts about the attribution, but the iconography of the large number of coins of Hadrian in the British Museum Catalogue makes the attribution certain. Speculative, if not imaginative, reasons for its having stood as the head of a statue placed on the N gate of Aelia Capitolina are given in Vincent, L.-H. and Abel, F.-M., Jérusalem Nouvelle, t.ii, Paris, 1914, pp. 37–9.Google Scholar For these there is neither archaeological nor literary evidence. For Kapoustin's career, see Hopwood, D., The Russian Presence in Syria and Palestine, 1843–1914, Oxford, 1969, pp. 86–95.Google Scholar

28 de Vogüé, M., Le Temple de Jérusalem, Paris 1864,Google Scholar pl.5, illustrates it with an engraving in situ:

The translation of Mazar, B., The Mountain of the Lord, p. 235,Google Scholar is defective.

29 Cf. Mazar, , op. cit., p. 235.Google Scholar

30 Cf. Kaufman, A. S., “New Light on the Ancient Temple of Jerusalem,” Christian News in Israel xxvi, 1978, pp. 54–8;Google Scholaridem, “Where the Ancient Temple of Israel stood,” Biblical Archaeological Review, Mar–Apr 1983, pp. 41–59.Google Scholar

31 Fleming, J., “The Undiscovered Gate below Jerusalem's Golden Gate,” ibidem, Jan–Feb, 1983, pp. 24–37, esp. p. 37.Google Scholar

32 Danby, H., The Mishnah, Oxford, 1935, pp. 10, 155, 590–2, 697–700.Google Scholar

33 Cf. Kopp, C., The Holy Places of the Gospels, Eng. tr., London, 1962, p. 384.Google Scholar

34 I am obliged to Mr Shimon Gibson, who participated in excavations in the newly-named Chapel of St Vartan, for a communication dated 24 March 1987 “concerning the date of the ship drawing and its inscription in the light of the various archaeological remains that were uncovered … It became clear that the whole area of the chapels of St Vartan and of the Invention of the Cross, and an additional space cleared farther north, had served as a large subterranean quarry for stone during the course of the Iron Age. A series of sealed fills contained pottery typical of the 7th century BC. At a much later date various walls were inserted into this area apparently in order to support the foundations of a system of vaulted substructures. At the time of the excavation it was quite clear that these walls had destroyed portions of the Iron Age floor; Corbo's erroneous suggestion (op. cit., I, pp. 112–3Google Scholar) that this floor originally extended between two of these walls must be based on observations he made at the site only after substantial restorations had been carried out by the Armenians. The drawing of the ship was found on a smooth-faced stone in one of these substructural walls. We can be fairly certain concerning the date of these walls: they were largely constructed out of stones and architectural fragments taken from buildings razed by the Romans in AD 70. Some of the fills associated with these walls contained late Roman pottery and stamped rooftiles which belonged to the Tenth Roman Legion. It appears that these walls originally supported the floors of Hadrianic buildings belonging to the Capitolium mentioned by Eusebius. These walls were uncovered, and partly destroyed, at the time of the construction of the foundation walls of the Constantinian basilica during the early 4th century. Our archaeological excavations have shown that access to this area could not have been gained during both Hadrianic and Constantinian times, because it was located below ground under enormous quantities of fills. Hence, it seems likely that the ship drawing and its inscription were executed during the decade between the dismantling of the Hadrianic buildings (including the Temple of Aphrodite) and the actual construction of the Constantinian basilica, i.e. during AD 325–335.”

35 Usefully reproduced by Wilkinson, J., Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades, Ariel Publishing House, Jerusalem 1977, Map 12(a).Google Scholar

36 Cf. Grabar, A., Martyrium, Paris ( 1946), Variorum, London 1972, Pl. XVI, no.3.Google Scholar

37 Guarducci, M., La Capsella Eburnea di Samagher: un cimelio di arte palaeocristiana nella storia del tardo imperio, Società Istriana di Archaeologia e Storia Patria, Trieste, 1978.Google Scholar I am obliged to Professora Guarducci for a copy of her work, to Lady (Frances) Clarke for facilitating correspondence, and to, Dr M. Tombolani, Director of the Museo Archeologico, Venice, for Pl. VII (1). This important work has been ignored by all recent writers with the exception of Corbo.

38 So too, without exception, has Barag, Dan, “Glass Pilgrim Vessels from Jerusalem”, Journal of Glass Studies, XII, 1970, pp. 35–63; XIII, pp. 45–63, been ignored.Google Scholar

39 Grabar, op. cit, illustrates them in detail.

40 See n.6 above and Pl. II (2).

41 Pl. V (2).

42 Grabar, op. cit., Pl. VIII, no. 3.

43 Printed usefully in Wilkinson, , op. cit., p. 60Google Scholar – early VI c.

44 Printed in full in the Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, V pp. 7–12.Google Scholar

45 Cf. Buckler, F. W., Harunu'l-Rashid and Charles the Great, Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge, Mass., 1931, esp. pp. 29–31;Google Scholar Einhard, apud Thorpe, L. in Two Lives of Charlemagne, Harmondsworth, 1969, pp. 70, 79–80,Google Scholar emphasises his jurisdiction over the Holy Sepulchre and elaborates on his devotion to the liturgy; see Devliegher, L., “Jean Bethune und das Kuppelmosaik im Dom zu Aachen” Beiträge zur der Kunstgeschichte und Denkmalpflege II, Düsseldorf 1974, pp. 279–292;Google ScholarSchnitzler, H., “Das Kuppelmosaik der Aachener Pfalzkapelle”, Aachener Kunstblätter, Heft 34, 1964, pp. 17–44;Google ScholarSchrade, H., “Zum Kuppelmosaik der Pfalzkapelle und zum Theoderich-Denkmal in Aachen”, Aachener Kunstblätter, Heft 30, 1965, pp. 25–37;Google ScholarGrape, W., “Karolingische Kunst und Ikonoklasmus”, Aachener Kunstblätter, Bd. 45, 1, 1974, pp. 49–58.Google Scholar

46 Cf. Baedeker, , op. cit., p. 39.Google Scholar

47 Pl. VIII (1) from Sisti, A., “The Shroud of Joseph of Arimathaea”, Holy Land Review, Spring–Winter 1980, pp. 38–41, esp. p. 39;Google Scholar cf. Heitz, Carol, Recherches sur les rapports entre architecture et liturgie à I'époque carolingienne, Paris, 1963, pp. 179–82.Google Scholar

48 I know of no comparable figure. No other objects in the Basilica antedate the XVIIth century.

49 Pl. VIII (2).

50 Cf. Dallas, R. W. A., Surveying with a camera: Photogrammetry, AJ Information Library, 30 Jan. 1980;Google Scholar“Plumb-Bob to Plotter: Developments in Architectural Photogrammetry in the United Kingdom”, Photogrammetric Record, Vol. II, 61, 04 1983;Google ScholarOptimum Practice in architectural Photogrammetric surveys, UNESCO, Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York, July 1986; and see also, for more general questions, Chapman, R. L., III, “Excavation Techniques and Recording Systems: a Theoretical Study,” Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 1986, pp. 5–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51 See Díez, op. cit.;Broshi, M. and Barkay, G., “Excavations in the Chapel of St Vartan in the Holy Sepulchre”, Israel Excavation Journal, 35, 2–3, 1985, pp. 108–128.Google Scholar