The modern Church of the Holy Sepulcher is an architectural complex that includes Golgotha with the place of the Crucifixion, a rotunda (a structure with a dome, under which the Kuvuklia is directly located), Katholikon (a cathedral church of the Jerusalem Church), an underground temple of the Finding of the Life-giving Cross, the temple of St. Helena, Equal to the Apostles and several side-altars.
On the territory of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher there are several monasteries, a number of auxiliary premises, galleries, etc.
The temple is divided between six denominations of the Christian Church: Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian and Ethiopian, each of which has its own chapels and prayer hours. Thus, the Church of the Franciscans and the Altar of Nails belong to the Catholic Order of St. Francis, the temple of Equal-to-the-Apostles Helena and the chapel of the "Three Mary" - the Armenian Apostolic Church, the grave of St. Joseph of Arimathea, altar on the western part of Kuvuklia - the Coptic Church. Golgotha, Catholicon belong to the Jerusalem Orthodox Church. The Kuvuklia is in the joint use of various confessions - Orthodox Christians (at 1 am), Armenians (at 4 am), then Catholics (from 6 am to 9 am) serve one after another at the liturgy on the Holy Sepulcher.
Often this division is the cause of conflicts between representatives of different faiths. To avoid any misunderstandings between different confessions, the keys to the temple have been kept since 1192 by the Arab-Muslim family of Judeh, and the right to unlock and lock the door belongs to another Muslim family, Nuseiba. These rights have been passed down through the centuries in both families from father to son.
The Holy Sepulcher is a typical Jewish tomb from the Second Temple period, carved into natural rock. The body of Christ was laid on a stone burial bed (200 × 80 cm, height from the floor 60 cm) with its feet to the east (that is, to the entrance), head to the west, according to Jewish custom. For a long time, the burial bed was badly damaged by pilgrims, who at any cost tried to chop off and take with them a particle of the relic. To prevent these attempts, the holy bed was covered with a slab of white marble, which has now turned yellow with age (the present slab was laid in 1555). Several centuries ago, the slab cracked across. A legend is connected with this crack that it miraculously arose when Muslims wanted to take a marble slab to decorate the mosque. The appearance of the crack stopped the Muslims, and the slab remained in its place.
Promotional video:
Initially, there was a burial cave around the bed, but it was destroyed along with the temple in 1009. Only the bed itself, part of the cave walls (up to 60-90 cm high) and part of the entrance have survived. Now the cave is being replaced by a small room (1.93 × 2.07 m) arranged inside the Kuvuklia, almost half of which, to the right of the entrance, at the northern wall, is occupied by a bed. It can accommodate three, at most four people at a time. The current building, like the former cave, is also called the Holy Sepulcher. From the east, from the Angel's side-chapel, a low arched entrance leads into it (only 112 × 72 cm and about 90 cm deep), obviously of an original character, according to most archaeologists.
Above the burial bed, at a height slightly higher than human height, 43 silver lamps are hung in rows, thirteen of which belong to the Orthodox, another thirteen are Catholics, thirteen are Armenians and four Copts. On weekdays, only a few of them are lit, and all the lamps are lit only on major holidays. There is a ventilation hole in the ceiling.
Kuvuklia is a small (6 × 8 m) domed chapel of yellow-pink marble in the center of the Rotunda of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. It contains the Holy Sepulcher and the chapel of the Angel. The entrance to the Kuvuklia is from the east; it has wooden double doors, and a marble platform connects it with the Catholicon. Outside, from the west, a Coptic chapel is attached to the Kuvuklia.
The first Kuvuklia was built during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great in 325-335 and was completely destroyed by Muslims in 1009. Kuvukliya was rebuilt for the second time in 1042-1048 by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomakh, then in the XII century it was renovated by the crusaders. In 1555, the Cuvuklia was rebuilt by the Franciscan Boniface of Ragusa, and it stood until 1808, when it was destroyed by a devastating fire. The existing Kuvuklia was restored in 1809-1810 according to the project of the Greek architect Nikolai Komin (1770-1821) from Mytilene. Subsequently, it was damaged in the earthquake of 1927 and today it is reinforced from the outside with steel beams and ties.
The Angel's Chapel is a small room (3.4 x 3.9 m) in the eastern part of the Kuvuklia, which is the only passage to the Holy Sepulcher. According to the Gospel, on this place, on a stone rolled away from the door of the Tomb, an Angel was sitting, announcing the Resurrection of Christ to the myrrh-bearing wives: “And now, there was a great earthquake, for the Angel of the Lord, coming down from heaven, having come down, rolled the stone from the door of the tomb and sat On him; his appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow; fearing him, the guards were in awe and became like the dead; And the angel, speaking to the women, said: do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus crucified; He is not here - He is risen, as He said. Come see the place where the Lord lay”(Matt. 28: 2-6).
According to legend, the archangel Gabriel announced the Resurrection of Christ to the myrrh-bearers. It is his name that is inscribed on a white marble bas-relief that adorns the entrance from the Angel's chapel to the Holy Sepulcher. To the left of the entrance, on the bas-relief, there are small figures of myrrh-bearing wives, and to the right is the figure of an Angel stretching out his hand to them. Between them above the entrance along the marble folds there is an inscription in Greek “What are you looking for alive among the dead? He is not here, He is risen."
In the north and south walls of the chapel, there are two oval holes with a diameter of about 30-40 cm. They are used on Holy Saturday to transmit the Holy Fire from the chapel to the outside. Through the northern opening, the Patriarch gives fire to the Orthodox, through the southern Armenian archimandrite to the Armenians. There are 15 icon lamps suspended from the ceiling of the chapel.
According to the Gospel, the stone rolled away from the door of the Tomb was "very large" (Mark 16: 4), but only fragments of it have survived to this day, because it was split into pieces during the last seizure of the Temple by the Muslims in 1244. In addition, the pilgrims “took that stone for blessing on the relics,” that is, they simply carried it away piece by piece. Today one of the parts of this sacred stone is kept under glass in a special marble pedestal in the center of the Angel's chapel. This pedestal also serves as a place for the installation of a portable holy throne during the celebration of the bishop's Orthodox liturgy. Another surviving part of the stone is placed in the throne of the Church of the Savior of the Armenian Monastery of Zion, which, according to legend, stands on the site of the house of the high priest Caiaphas, outside the walls of the Old City, to the right of the Zion Gate.
The Coptic side-altar (also the Head of the Tomb) is a small chapel attached to the Cuvuklia from the west, on the side where the Head of Christ was turned.
The altar first appeared here in 1042-1048, when the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomakh rebuilt the temple after its destruction by Al-Hakim. Later, the crusaders preserved this altar, made a wooden canopy over it and called it the Head of the Tomb. Subsequently, it was in the hands of the Franciscans and then passed on to the Coptic Church, which has owned this chapel from 1537-1540. Today this chapel is the only Coptic possession in the temple. As a rule, the side-chapel is always open and a Coptic monk is on duty.