Nativity token (1973,0501.7)

Type: Portable Object
Tags: C5th-C6th, Christ, Late Antique, Manger, Nativity, Ox and Ass, Pilgrimage Object, Portable Object, Star, Terracotta, Token

Nativity token (BM 1973,0503.6)

Type: Portable Object
Tags: C5th-C6th, Christ, Late Antique, Manger, Nativity, Ox and Ass, Pilgrimage Object, Portable Object, Star, Terracotta, Token

Nativity token (BM 1973,0501.5)

Type: Portable Object
Tags: C5th-C6th, Christ, Crescent Moon, Late Antique, Manger, Nativity, Ox and Ass, Pilgrimage Object, Portable Object, Star, Terracotta, Token, Virgin Mary

Nativity token (BM 1973,0501.4)

Type: Portable Object
Tags: C5th-C6th, Christ, Crescent Moon, Late Antique, Manger, Nativity, Ox and Ass, Pilgrimage Object, Portable Object, Star, Token, Virgin Mary

Christ and the apostles

Christ and the apostles stand immediately above the semi-dome of the apse on the triumphal arch. Christ is flanked by Saints Peter and Paul who have their recognisable features of white hair and beard for St. Peter and a dark beard and receding hairline for St. Paul. Although the scene has been quite damaged, some elements are very well preserved and the image of St. Paul was the only illustration used in the commemorative service books handed to priests during Pope John Paul II's visit to Damascus in 2001.

Type: Painting
Tags: 1207/08, An Nabk, Apostles, Christ, Church, Deir Mar Musa, Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi, Mar Musa al-Habashi, Monastery, St. Paul, St. Peter, Syria

Mount of Beatitudes, Galilee

During Christ’s teachings and miracles in and around the Sea of Galilee, He delivered a collection of teachings that is commonly termed the Sermon on the Mount. This has come to represent the most important piece of teachings from Him and includes the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer. They were written in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapters 5-7. The mountainside on which it took place is known as Mount of the Beatitudes and was said to overlook the Sea of Galilee. Since the 4th Century, a mountainside just north-east of Tabgha has been venerated as the place of the Sermon and a church was built on the site. Very little of this original structure remains and it is difficult to gain access to. In the 20th Century, a new church was built near to the 4th Century church.

Type: Architecture
Tags: C20th, C4th-C5th, Christ, Christian, Galilee, Holy Site, Israel, Mountain, Pilgrimage, Sermon on the Mount, The Apostles

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

Early sources reveal that Constantine’s church of the Holy Sepulchre was sumptuously decorated with fine marbled panels, columns and a coffered ceiling. A cross was set up on the rock of Golgotha to commemorate the exact site of the Crucifixion and was replaced over the following centuries with one decorated with gems, a golden cross and a simple wooden one in the seventh century. Christ’s tomb was in two parts: the first a porch that contained part of the stone that formed the door to the tomb and the second the tomb itself. It had a roof of silver and gold, outer walls made of marble and it was topped with a cross.

The modern church has been significantly modified and little of the Late Antique fabric has survived as much of it was rebuilt in the nineteenth and twentieth century following a fire and an earthquake that caused much damage.

Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, C12th, C19th-C20th, C2nd, C4th, Christ, Christian, Church, Constantine, Cross, Crucifixion, Crusades, Domed Basilica, Golgotha, Holy Sepulchre, Holy Site, Israel, Jerusalem, Joseph of Arimathea, Mosaic, Pilgrimage, Resurrection, St. Helena, Tomb

The external architecture of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

The first church of the Holy Sepulchre built by the Emperor Constantine was dedicated in the year 328 AD. It was accessed off one of Jerusalem’s main thoroughfares, the Cardo. The entrance led to a narthex, the basilica, an atrium and culminated with the Anastasis (or Resurrection) Rotunda that surrounded the much smaller edifice of Christ’s Tomb. Unfortunately, very little of this church now remains. The Late Antique foundations exist below ground level of the current church and are cut off from public view. Throughout its history, the church has undergone many remodelling and rebuilding programmes, much of which was caused by its turbulent history during the Persian invasion in the seventh century and the Muslim conquest of the city in the eleventh century. Much of the visible external architecture dates to the Crusader period.

Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, C12th, C19th-C20th, C2nd, C4th, Christ, Christian, Church, Constantine, Crucifixion, Crusades, Domed Basilica, Golgotha, Holy Sepulchre, Holy Site, Israel, Jerusalem, Pilgrimage, Resurrection, St. Helena, Tomb

The Church of the Nutrition, Nazareth

A short distance from the church of the Annunciation in Nazareth is the church of the Nutrition. It was given this name as its original Late Antique church was constructed over the home and workshop of Joseph and was the place where Christ spent much of his childhood. This church incorporated grottos, cisterns and a ritual bath or baptismal font. It was used in the Crusader period, prior to its destruction by fire in the thirteenth century. The Franciscans rebuilt the current church in the twentieth century.

Type: Architecture
Tags: Architecture, Bath, C20th, Caves, Christ, Christian, Church, Cistern, Crusades, Holy Site, Israel, Late Antique, Nazareth, Pilgrimage, St. Joseph

The Church of the Annunciation, Nazareth

In the mid-fourth century, a church was constructed around a grotto in the town of Nazareth that was said to be the Virgin Mary’s house and the place where the archangel Gabriel appeared to her during the Annunciation. This holy site was clearly well established as a place of worship towards the end of the fourth century as the pilgrim Egeria describes an altar within a grand and splendid grotto. The Piacenza pilgrim who journeyed to Nazareth in the late sixth century states that there is a basilica at the House of Mary that contains many garments that once belonged to the Virgin. Today, remnants of wall paintings, mosaics, and the architecture from this early church building are visible.

Type: Architecture
Tags: Annunciation, Architecture, C20th, C4th, C5th-C6th, Cave, Christ, Christian, Cross, Foliage, Fresco, Geometric Motif, Greek Inscription, Holy Site, Inscription, Israel, Mosaic, Nazareth, Pilgrimage, St. Gabriel, Staurogram, Virgin Mary