Ashley Thompson Blog 11

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Prior to doing my presentation, I had nooo idea what this was. It was interesting to learn that historians, archeologists, and Christians believe it occupies the site of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. It was also interesting to learn that it is located in the of the Old City of Jerusalem -- still standing at the end of Via Dolorose. the Path of Sorrows, believed by Christians to be the path along which Jesus carried his cross to Calvalry. Apparently, the site was a burial ground at the time of the crucifixion.
The interior has been altered by years of different Christian denominations restoring/renovating it to fit their particular tastes. When relating its history to Van Der Leeuw's point of view on religion and architecture I found several interesting points. According to Van der Leeuw, building means constructing a House of God – this was the goal from the very beginning in constructing the Church of Holy Sepulchre. Van der Leeuw expressed that location of churches or scared places is of extreme importance. This is because having the proper location corresponds to the conditions of power. One of the examples of powerful locations that he used was Jerusalem. The Church of Holy Sepulchre is located in the Jerusalem’s’ Old City. The history of the church reflects the change over the years in the uses of sacred places. Primitive man found shrines already in nature. This is reflected in the Churches history because prior to its construction, Calvalry, the hill, was a scared. Van der Leeuw says “man no longer builds a holy place but rather builds himself a place in which he can pray to God in peace” (Van der Leeuw 195). At first Constantine I wanted to construct a place to house all the sacred sights of the Christian religion. By the time The First Crusade came about, it was envisioned as an armed pilgrimage, and no crusader could consider his journey complete unless he had prayed as a pilgrim at the church.