Image Details

PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

BIG CHURCH OF BETHLEHEM. A cave associated with Jesus’s birthplace appears in historical sources already in the second century. Like the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Nativity featured a courtyard (atrium), a double-colonnaded basilica, and a culminating sacred space (here, an octagonal martyrium) linked to a key event in Jesus’s life (reconstruction shown here). The current basilica, dating from the sixth century, was built atop the original structure, traces of which have been found beneath the church’s central nave, including beautiful mosaic floors. The original church’s octagonal structure was built over an ancient grotto, which even today preserves the traditional spot of Jesus’s birth.