A Program for the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

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The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is not an easy building to figure out in its details. Each sect has its own corner in the basement or on the roof. You can’t say that it was built to be user friendly. Be that as it may, the building is effortlessly experienced by thousands of pilgrims and tourists every day. This effortlessness, I believe, comes from the fact that the building conforms to the narrative of the death-burial-resurrection of Jesus.

When someone walks through the main entrance he or she immediately sees a large mosaic on the wall. The workmanship looks modern:

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But whatever the date of the mosaic, it captures the story of the church. On the right you see Jesus coming down from the cross and his followers mourning him. In the center is Jesus being laid down to be dressed for burial. Then on the left (and moving out of the picture) you can see Jesus being laid in the tomb. Each of these three stages are represented spatially in the church. In the upper room is the site where Jesus was crucified; the Stone of Unction in the entrance of the church is where Jesus was prepared for burial; finally the Holy Sepulcher itself is where Jesus was buried. Anyone who walks into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with the basic facts of the story of Jesus in mind will intuitively understand the flow of the building. There is hardly even any need for a guide. We could easily take this for granted, but it would be far less easy if the story were not so well inscribed onto the structure itself.

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