Crusader Relief Crusader sculpture found in Nazareth in 1867, from the Church of the Annunciation. It was sculpted in the same style as five Romanesque capitals carved by artists from northern France, and discovered during excavations of the church in 1909. The sculpture was concealed when the Crusaders surrendered Nazareth after the battle of the […]
The Crusader church was built on the site of a destroyed Byzantine church. It was bigger than the Byzantine structure, consisting of three aisles and six bays, probably with a crossing covered by a dome fronting three apses. In 1187, the church was used as a refuge by the Christian inhabitants of Nazareth after the […]
Identified by inscriptions along the sides, the relics include a fragment of wood believed to be from the cross on which Jesus was crucified – set prominently in a rectangular frame with a cutout cross – as well as relics of the Holy Innocents and of the tombs of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Reliquaries […]
Bible and Beyond Reliquary Cross of Justin II The sixth-century ‘Reliquary Cross of Justin II’, covered in semiprecious stones, shows how far Christianity had traveled from its unpretenious beginnings. Reliquaries are the containers that store and display relics. Since the relics themselves were considered “more valuable than precious stones and more to be esteemed than […]
Capital from Church of the Repose One of the three Crusader capitals embellishing the façade of the Bani Ghawanima minaret in the northwest corner of the Temple Mount. These three capitals, as well as a fourth one now in the Islamic Museum on the Temple Mount, were apparently part of a small Crusader chapel near […]
Entrance to Hospital of the Knights of St. John, 1865. With the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon provided money for the expansion and renovation of a hospice which had been founded in 1048. The new hospice was known as the Hospital of the Knights of St. John and was located near the […]
Coin of Theophilus Silvercoin (miliaresion) of Theophilus, stray find from the Lower City of Amorium, Turkey. Lightfoot, Chris and Mucahide, Amorium; A Byzantine City in Anatolia. Galatasaray, Istanbul- Homer Kitabevi, 2007.
Mosque of Omar Inscription Fatimid inscription forbidding non-Muslims to enter the mosque erected on the alleged site of the caliph Umar’s prayer in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Museum of Antiquities, Istanbul Prawer, Joshua and Haggai Ben-Shammai, eds., The History of Jerusalem; The Early Muslim Period 638-1099. Jerusalem- Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, 1996 See also- […]
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Photo by Ardon Bar Hama. Caliph al-Hakin ordered the destruction of all churches in Jerusalem, including the Holy Sepulchre. Christians were forbidden to visit the Church’s ruins. It took almost forty years for the Byzantine Emperor to negotiate a peace treaty with al-Hakim’s successor that granted him permission to rebuild […]
Hisham’s Palace. Photo courtesy of BiblePlaces.com. Walid ibn Yazif, found at Hisham’s Palace The Ummayad Dynasty invested a lot of money in construction in both Jerusalem and Jericho. During the reign of el-Hisham, the construction of an elaborate palace about one mile northeast of the tell of Jericho was begun. The complex includes a bath, […]