The Religious Importance of the Church of the Holy Sepulcure: 

 lnside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre visitors will find  the place where the virgin Mary received her son’s body.This spot ,marking the thirteenth post on Christ’s journey to his death,symbolically features a statue of Mary with a silver dagger wedged into her chest.  Christ’s tomb marks the fourteenth and last post on the Via Dolorosa and features a massive marble structure,believed to be Jesus original tomb. The Church of St. John marks the exact birthplace of the scriptural saint John best known for baptizing Jesus upon his ordainment to christianity. Ein kerem offer yet another important  christian site: Mary’s spring. This fresh water spring located on the outskirts of Ein kerem is believed to be the place where Mary met saint Elizabeth(wife of Zeharya and mother of saint John the baptist) .In the pest, christian pilgrims would frequent the spring to drink from its blessed water, however,Mary’s spring is still believed to have healing powers.

Just inside the entrance to the church is the stone of anointing (also stone of the anointing or stone of unction ) ,which tradition believes to be the spot where Jesus’ body was prepared for burial by Joseph of Arimathea . However, this tradition is only attested since the crusader era (notably by the ltalian Dominican pilgrim Riccoldo da monte di Croce in 1288), and the present stone was only added in the 1810 reconstruction.

Brief History:

A diagram of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre showing the traditional site of Calvary and the Tomb of Jesus .According to Eusebius of Caesarea ,the Roman emperor Hadrain in the 2nd century AD built a temple dedicated to the goddess Venus in order to bury the cave in which Jesus had been buried .The first christian emperor ,Constantin the Great, ordered in about 325/ 326 that the temple be replaced by a church .During the building of the Church ,Constantine’s mother, Helena is believed to have rediscovered the tomb (although there are some discrepancies among authors), Socrates Scholasticus (born c. 380), in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a full description of the discovery.

Armed crusaders visited the church as pilgrims  during the First Crusades ,leaving behind graffiti carved into the walls that still remains.

Today the church is shared maintained by different denominations of Christian monks —occasionally physical fights arguments break out between them.

The key to the church is actually looked after by a Muslimfamily as it has been tradition for centuries.

Architecture

the church was built starting in 325/326 and was consecrated on 13 Septesmber 335. from pilgrim reports it seems that the chapel housing the tomb of Jesus was Freestanding at first, and that the rotunda was only erected around the chapel in the 380s.

Each year, the Eastern orthodox church celebrates the anniversary of the consecration of the church of the resurrection (holy Spulchre) on 13 Septesmber

christian sites in Jerusalem:

Church of all Nations

it is believed to be the place where Jesus was last seen praying before he was betraied by Judas and captured by the romans. According to christian belief, Christ and his disciples retreated to the garden of Gethsemane after the last supper, it is here that Christ gave his last sermon to his students.

Via Dolorosa

The Via Dolorosa is the road Jesus walked from the place of pontius pilate’s sentencing to Golgotha (the location of the crucifixion) and is the most sacred christian byway in the world.

those walking the Via Dolorosa -which means”way of sorrows”- symbolically relive the moments of Christ’s passion.