The city of Jerusalem

by C. R. Conder

The chapel which has been found on the north side of the Pool of Siloam appears to be somewhat later than this wall. It is not mentioned by any writer before 570 A. D., and it may have been built under Justinian. The pool—as described by Antoninus Martyr—was then converted into a baptistery, and the chapel was no doubt used in connection with the rites. The reservoir was divided into two parts by rails. In one part men were washed, in the other women, “for a blessing,” and the intermittent flow from the tunnel was awaited. The waters were said to cure leprosy—no doubt with reference to the Gospel story.[427] As late as the eleventh century[428] a Moslem writer informs us, in speaking of Siloam, “there are at this spring many buildings for charitable purposes, richly endowed”; but these were apparently not kept up, and the chapel is not noticed in the accounts of the Middle Ages. The institution is mentioned by Nâṣr-i-Khosrau in connection with the hospice in the city itself (afterwards that of St. John), which dated from about 800 A. D. It is, however, possible that both these charitable institutions originated with Justinian, who certainly erected others on the Temple hill.

THE MOSAIC MAP

The mosaic map of Jerusalem, perhaps about 450 A. D., has already been noticed.[429] It shows very clearly Constantine’s Church of the Anastasis, with the great roofless apse on the west, the basilica to its east having a pitched roof, while the atrium seems also to be roofless, and the porch gates stand above steps leading down to the pillared street close by to the east. The representation of the city is a rude perspective, and the main buildings are quite out of scale. The pillared street ascends to Zion by steps at right angles to its course, which is north and south through the middle of the city. The walls are strengthened by towers such as have been actually unearthed on the south. Three city gates are shown on west, north, and east. The only building on the Temple site is at the south-east corner—apparently the “Chapel of St. Simeon” in the old Herodian vault, where the “Cradle of Christ” was early shown. The second pillared street, west of the Temple, descends towards Siloam by steps, and Antoninus Martyr,[430] in the sixth century, speaks of descending this street under the “arch” of the causeway, which then led to the central gate of the west Temple wall, and “by many steps” down to Siloam. The Church of St. Anne is shown in the north-east part of the city, and a large church inside the wall on the south-west is probably St. Sion.[431] The House of Annas appears to its north, with three other buildings—two east of the central street.

At the time when Eudocia retired to Jerusalem the terror of the Huns had fallen on Europe and on Asia. Before his death, her husband, Theodosius II., was forced to make peace with Attila. Last of the Spanish emperors of Byzantium, he was succeeded in 457 A. D. by Leo of Thrace. The Roman Empire was broken up by the Goths, who were driven from their homes by the Huns, and who invaded the Balkan peninsula and Asia Minor. Theodoric the Ostrogoth nearly won Byzantium from Zeno the Isaurian, and then conquered Italy and sacked Rome. The rude civilisation of the Goths was fatal to the ancient culture of Greeks and Latins, and the Arians triumphed over the Catholics. Asia was Arian at heart, and the Eastern Churches refused the new definitions and the Mariolatry of the imperial orthodoxy. After the Council of Chalcedon (in 451 A. D.), when Jerusalem became the seat of a patriarch, Syrians, Copts, Armenians, and Chaldeans alike were separated from the Greeks and Romans. The superstitions which Chrysostom denounced at Antioch even in the fourth century degraded Christianity, and learning hid itself in remote monasteries, while education was ruined by Gothic barbarism. From this welter of confusion rose the new empire of Justinian—himself of Gothic descent—which restored the glories of Constantine’s monarchy for forty years after 527 A. D. But the ancient world was entirely changed, and Byzantine power lingered only half a century after Justinian’s death.

JUSTINIAN

Justinian was a great builder, and did much for Jerusalem. If the architectural style of his work on the Temple hill is sometimes more classical than that of his great Cathedral of St. Sophia in his capital, this may be attributed—in an age of novelty—to the later selection of Theodorus as his architect.[432] The fine, square, undrafted masonry which stands on the Herodian work in the outer Temple walls is certainly later than Hadrian’s time, since his inscription has been built into it upside-down at the Double Gate. It is attributed by de Vogüé to Justinian, who was the first to restore the ramparts destroyed by Titus. Similar masonry is also found in connection with the wall of Eudocia, but this is less well hewn than Justinian’s work. His great building was the Church of St. Mary on the south side of the Temple enclosure, and besides this he appears to have founded the Church of the Virgin’s Tomb, as well as one to St. Sophia, and two hospitals.

We owe our knowledge of Justinian’s works to Procopius, but his description of the St. Mary Church is so vague as to lead some writers to state that its position cannot be identified. Procopius[433] says that the “temple to the Virgin, ... called by natives the New Church,” was ordered to be built “on the most prominent of the hills.” It was begun by the Patriarch Elias, and completed by Justinian about 532 A. D. It was found that there was not enough flat ground to allow of the emperor’s design being carried out, without raising the foundations on vaults under about a quarter of the area towards the south-east, so that it was evidently on the narrower part of the Temple ridge. Antoninus Martyr tells us that a footprint of Christ was shown in this church, which later writers identify with the present Aḳṣa Mosque,[434] where the “footprint of Jesus” is still shown. In the twelfth century the Templars’ Church occupied the south part of this mosque, and had an apse on the east, the wall of which is still visible. It consisted of a nave and two aisles, and the mosque dome is still supported on fine columns which appear to be of the time of Justinian. The building stands partly on the rock and partly on the vaulted passage from the Double Gate, which passage is also of masonry attributable to the age of Justinian, its barrel vault being Byzantine.

On the south-east the rock is 40 feet lower than the floor of the mosque, and the surface is banked up above it, and is partly supported by the west wall and the vaulted roof of the Triple Gateway. The site thus answers to that described by Procopius, and the Templars’ apse very probably marks the site of that which belonged to Justinian’s church, and which is described as being on the east. The building had two side apses—as was usual in this age—and on the west was a narthex, or narrow porch, with a square atrium or outer court, and beyond this again the western gates. The great apse was flanked by two tall pillars, and the church appears to have had a clerestory. The atrium, as well as the aisles, was adorned with large pillars, and it is supposed that some of the massive columns now used in the north part of the mosque have been cut down in height, and originally belonged to the church. They have Corinthian capitals, but are evidently not standing in situ,[435] and in style they are not as early as the pillars of Constantine’s basilica at Bethlehem.[436]

We may suppose, therefore, that the new Church of the Virgin occupied what is called the “transept” of the Aḳṣa, thus including the “footprint of Christ” in its south-west part. It was thus about 160 feet long and 100 feet wide, with an atrium 100 feet square on the west. It resembled in plan the Holy Sepulchre basilica, except that it had three apses on the east instead of one large apse on the west. This building became the first mosque in Jerusalem a century after it was built.

ST. SOPHIA