Jerusalem (Old city) - Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Martyrion / Basilica of Constantine)

Paragraph: 
II, 1-3
Translation: 

(1) People therefore coming into the city from the north are taken to their first holy place by the layout of the streets, and go into Constantine's church which is called Martyrium. This was the church which with royal magnificence Emperor Constantine built, because it was in that place that the Cross of the Lord had been found by Helena his mother. <Descriptions of the Golgotha Church and of the Anastasis.> (2) - - - In the court, which is beyond the Martyrium and Golgotha, there is a recess where the Lord's Chalice is placed in a reliquary, and it is usuai to touch it and kiss it through a hole in the door. This silver Chalice has two handles on one side and the other, and holds a French quart. Also m the reliquar; is that sponge used for the Lord's drink. And in the place where Abraham built an altar to sacrifice his son, there is a wooden table — not a small one — to which it is customary for the alms for the poor to be brought by the people. But all these details I have told you, I have taken the trouble to draw for you so that you may understand them more clearly. (3) The lance of the soldier is inside a wooden cross in the entry of the Martyriurn, and its shaft, cut into two parts, is venerated by the whole city.

(transl. Wilkinson)

Bibliografical ref.: 
Bibliography
Summary: 
Description of the Martyrium basilica built by Constantine, its courtyard and relics, largely based on Adamnan, from a geographical work compiled AD 702-703.