Jerusalem (Valley of the Cross) - HOLY CROSS

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Source of knowledge
Archaeological remains
Surveyed site
Surveyors: 
NameDate
Guérin
1868-69
Kloner
History: 
The monastery was first constructed in the sixth century. Several traditions concerning its foundation exist. According to one tradition, the land on which the monastery was built was gifted to the Iberian king Mirian by the emperor Constantine the Great in the fourth century. According to a second tradition, it was the empress Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine the Great who laid the foundations for the monastery. The sixth century monastery apparently was destroyed in 614 CE during the Persian invasion, after which it was rebuilt and occupied until the Fatimid period, when it was destroyed by the Sultan el-Hakim in the early eleventh century. Sometime later, the monastery was rebuilt by the Georgian Orthodox church under whom the monastery thrived until the 17th century, when it faced financial and other difficulties. In the 18th century the Georgian church was forced to pass the monastery into the hands of the Greek Orthodox church who own it to the present day. A theological seminary opened in 1855 and the monastery was enlarged to serve as a hostel for pilgrims as well. In the present day, an abbot with a small number of lay people reside in the monastery and maintain it.
State of certainty: 
Archaeologicaly definitive
Architectural evolution
General outline: 
Two foundation dates have been offered for the foundation. Economopoulos has offered a date in the late fourth century, based on the pottery. According to Zaferis, the pottery is later, i.e. late fifth-sixth century.
Dating material: 

Pottery.

Phase date
Century: 
4th-5th c.
General outline: 
The church became a tri-apsidal basilica in the 7th century and mosaics were laid. There is no information concerning the monastery. Economopoulos asserts that the church was destroyed in 614 CE and restored after the earthquake of 659 CE.
Dating material: 

Style of the mosaics.

Economopoulos bases his dating on a comparison to St. Eutimyhius monastery (Khan el Ahmar) mosaics.

Phase date
Century: 
7th c.
General outline: 
Signs of destruction in the Early Islamic period indicate that the church (and perhaps the monastery) continued to function.
Dating material: 

According to Schick, no signs of iconoclasm show that the church was not in use in the eighth century.

Phase date
Century: 
7th-8th c.
Within century: 
First half
General outline: 
The site was rebuilt in the 10-11th century by a Georgian monk, Prochorus Shavsheli (958-1066).
Phase date
Century: 
11th c.
Within century: 
Late
Iconoclastic evidence
Iconoclastic evidence: 
No
Post Arab conquest history: 
Still in use
Post conquest history comments: 
There are contradictory opinions concerning the existence of the church (and monastery) after the Persian occupation. No iconoclastic evidence shows that it might have been in use in the first half of the eighth century (Schick 1995: 341).
In continuous use