Located in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection or Church of the Anastasis by Eastern Christians, contains, according to traditions, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he is said to have been buried and resurrected. The tomb is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicula. The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.
Within the church proper are the last four stations of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of the Passion of Jesus. The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage destination since its creation in the fourth century. Today, the wider complex around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre also serves as the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, while control of the church itself is shared among several Christian denominations and secular entities.
The church was built as separate constructs over the two holy sites: the great basilica (the Martyrium), an enclosed colonnaded atrium (the Triportico) with the traditional site of Calvary in one corner, and across a courtyard, a rotunda called the Anastasis ("Resurrection"), where Helena and Macarius believed Jesus to have been buried. Consecrated on 13 September 335, the church suffered in the following centuries numerous catastrophic fires and earthquakes, being completely destroyed in 2009, at the order of Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the "mad Caliph".
The rebuilding of the church was completed by Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople in 1048. Taken from the Fatimids by the knights of the First Crusade on 15 July 1099, was lost to Saladin, along with the rest of the city, in 1187. However, the treaty established after the Third Crusade allowed Christian pilgrims to visit the site. After the renovation of 1555 by the Franciscan friars, control of the church oscillated between the Franciscans and the Orthodox, depending on which community could obtain a favorable firman from the "Sublime Porte".
The current dome, made of iron, was restored by Catholics, Greeks and Turks in 1868. It was restored again in 1994-97 as part of extensive modern renovations that have been ongoing since 1959. During the 1970-78 restoration works and excavations inside the building, it was found that the area was originally a quarry. East of the Chapel of Saint Helena, the excavators discovered a void containing a 2nd-century drawing of a Roman ship, two low walls supporting the platform of Hadrian's temple, and a higher 4th-century wall built to support Constantine's basilica. The Armenian authorities converted this archaeological space into the Chapel of Saint Vartan, and created an artificial walkway over the quarry on the north of the chapel, so that the new Chapel could be accessed from the Chapel of Saint Helena.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site The Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls, about which I wrote here.
About the stamp, part of the series Mountains in Israel, I wrote here.
References
Church of the Holy Sepulchre - Wikipedia
Sender: Marius Vasilescu
Sent from Jerusalem (Israel), on 08.03.2019
Photo: Garo Nalbandian
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