Ḥorvat Midras - Church

Τhe first basilical church, oriented northwest-southeast and built of local limestones, was built over a burial cave with three burial troughs reached via a rock-hewn staircase. The floors of the basilica were of white mosaics. The exact plan of the basilica is not clear. Seemingly the underlying burial cave was connected to it. 

In the 2nd building phase a large three aisled basilica was built using architectural members and decorative elements of the previous edifice, preserving its orientation. An atrium and a narthex were attached on the west. The entrances to the complex were located in the western wall of atrium. On the east the church had a central apse (segmental, less than a hemisphere), flanked by dead-ends aisles. Behind the apse two L-shaped pastophoria separated from each other by a wall were located within the straight eastern wall. Two colonnades of four columns separated the nave from the aisles. They were of imported gray marble. The floors were covered with mosaic floors. During Stage 4a the mosaics of the apse and of the bema were laid of tesserae smaller than those of the domus. During Stage 4b (our Phase 2), mosaic floors of the domus were kept and reused, but the southern pastophorium was paved with marble slabs, underlining its special importance (probably, a reliquary was kept there). The shape of the northern pastophorium was also transformed: an apse was installed in its southern edge (its spring cource cornize still preserved). The burial cave, which was reached from the northern aisle via the northern pastophorium and served as a martyrium, was covered with slabs. New white mosaic was laid in this room and it was also decorated with frescoes.  During the same Phase 4b the bema was extended to the west, it was paved with marble slabs and two stairs were installed on its western edge.