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Church of Saint George (Lod)

Coordinates: 31°57′10.8″N 34°53′58.15″E / 31.953000°N 34.8994861°E / 31.953000; 34.8994861
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For other uses, see St George's Church (disambiguation).

Church of Saint George
Religion
AffiliationGreek Orthodox Christianity
Location
LocationLod, Israel
Geographic coordinates31°57′10.8″N 34°53′58.15″E / 31.953000°N 34.8994861°E / 31.953000; 34.8994861

The Church of Saint George (Arabic: كنيسة القديس جيورجوس or كنيسة مار جريس, Hebrew: כנסיית גאורגיוס הקדוש קוטל הדרקון, "Church of Saint George the dragonslayer")[1] in the city of Lod is a Greek Orthodox church containing a sarcophagus venerated as the tomb of the fourth-century Christian martyr Saint George.

The church sits adjacent to the Great Mosque of Lod.[2] The church building is based on the partially rebuilt Crusader-period church,[1] which had itself been built over part of the remains and footprint of the Byzantine-period predecessor.[3]

View, circa 1920.

History

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Annotated plan of the Church-Mosque, based upon a diagram by Charles Clermont-Ganneau

Byzantine establishment

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The church of Saint George was first established in Lod by the Byzantines and stood in the 5th-7th centuries.[3] It was probably shaped as a basilica whose three aisles terminated at the east end in semi-circular apses.[3] Beside the main church, the complex also contained a second, smaller one just southwest of it.[3] The Christian site was destroyed in 614 by the Sasanids during the war which led to them conquering Jerusalem.

The Byzantine basilica may have had just one apse with two irregular pastophoria (chambers)[clarification needed].[4]

Crusader cathedral

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Original Crusader Church

The Crusaders established their cathedral at the exact site of the main Byzantine church, reusing some of its surviving masonry, and having the same internal measurements of 47 metres east to west, and 24 metres north to south.[3] The three-aisled basilica also terminated in three semi-circular apses, with the second of five bays forming the transept.[3] In 1177, a detachment of Saladin's army attacked the town and the inhabitants survived by taking refuge on the roof of the fortified church, which seems to indicate that by this time it had a stone roof.[3]

After reconquering the land from the Crusaders in the aftermath of the 1187 Battle of Hattin, Saladin had the cathedral of Lydda and castle of Ramle demolished in 1191.[3] The territory around Lydda changed hands repeatedly during the next eight decades, and the state of the church during this time is not clearly documented, with nothing to support the notion that it was rebuilt by Richard the Lionhearted.[3] It seems that the Greek Orthodox continued using the still standing eastern part of the church, with the choir and the tomb of St George, possibly along with the smaller buildings southwest of the ruined cathedral.[3] In 1266 Lydda fell to the Mamluk sultan Baibars.[3] Clermont-Ganneau speculated that the Frankish materials present in secondary use at the nearby Jindas Bridge (1273) were taken from the demolished part of the Lydda church,[3] which Adrian Boas sees as part of the wider Mamluk custom of marking the triumph over the Christians by recycling their masonry for their own constructions.[5]

Mamluk mosque

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Further information: Mosque of Al-Khadr, Lod

During the Mamluk period, the ruined western part of the Crusader church has been converted into a congregational mosque, the earliest mention of which comes from the early 15th century.[3] The remains of the smaller Byzantine basilica southwest of the main church, including its apse, were incorporated into the mosque's prayer hall;[3] today a pillar that once stood in the nave of the basilica remains inside the mosque prayer hall with an inscription in Greek.[3]

The northern façade of the mosque building faces the courtyard (sahn), and makes use of the south wall of the Crusader church. The ceiling of the mosque is vaulted and made in the shape of a cross. On the eastern side of the prayer hall remains a remnant of a Byzantine apse. Beneath the mosque[clarification needed] are underground halls, built by the Crusaders and used as reservoirs for the church and city residents. The mosque and minaret were mentioned by Felix Fabri in the 1480s:

"The rest of the church has been cut off from the choir by a wall, and they have made that part of it into a fair mosque in honour of Mahomet, and adorned it with a lofty tower. The door stood over against us, so that we could see into the courtyard of the mosque, and into the mosque itself, and it was like Paradise for cleanliness and beauty."[6]

19th-century church

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Drawing of the site prior to rebuilding by Charles William Meredith van de Velde

The current Church of St. George incorporates only the northeast corner of the original site. During the second part of the nineteenth century, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem received permission from the Ottoman authorities to build a church on the site of the medieval ruins. The 19th-century church was built over the remains of the 12th-century Crusader structure, occupying the east end of its nave and northern aisle, from which the corresponding two apses survive.[3]

The Ottoman authorities stipulated that part of the church plot be incorporated in the mosque courtyard.[7] The southern part of the Crusader church dictated the shape of the mosque courtyard.[3]

The church crypt contains a sarcophagus[1] venerated as a symbolic tomb of St George.[2]

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Combined site

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  • 1487 drawing of ruined church over St George's tomb and Mosque by Konrad von Grünenberg
    1487 drawing of ruined church over St George's tomb and Mosque by Konrad von Grünenberg
  • 1714 drawing of ruined church over St George's tomb by Cornelis de Bruijn
    1714 drawing of ruined church over St George's tomb by Cornelis de Bruijn
  • 1807
    1807
  • 1866 (east end ruins, viewed from the south)
    1866 (east end ruins, viewed from the south)
  • 1857
    1857
  • 1870
    1870
  • 1873-74
    1873-74
  • 1910
    1910
  • c.1920
    c.1920
  • 1948-49
    1948-49
  • 2022
    2022
  • Iconostasis and chandelier
    Iconostasis and chandelier
  • The symbolic sarcophagus of St George from the crypt
    The symbolic sarcophagus of St George from the crypt
  • Bas-relief on the sarcophagus
    Bas-relief on the sarcophagus

Bibliography

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "Excursions in Terra Santa". Franciscan Cyberspot. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2007.
  2. ^ a b Collins, M. (2018). St. George and the Dragons: The Making of English Identity. Fonthill Media. pp. 406-408 [mainly 408]. Retrieved 9 July 2022. In Lod and in Al-Khadr, shrines to St George consist of a single site where a church has been built alongside a mosque.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Pringle, D. (1998). "Lydda (nos. 137-8)". The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem. Vol. II: L-Z (excluding Tyre). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39037-0. Retrieved 22 December 2022. (pp. 9 ff, see 9-15)
  4. ^ Margalit, S., "The Bi-Apsidal Churches in Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus", Liber Annuus 40 (1990): 321-334, pls. 45-48.
  5. ^ Boas, Adrian J. (19 October 2020). On a Saint, a Dragon, a Church, a Bridge, a Cat, a Rat and a Statement. Accessed 21 Dec. 2022.
  6. ^ Felix Fabri, p.257
  7. ^ Mauss, Christophe-Edouard (1892). "L'Église de Saint-Jérémie à Abou-Gosch (Emmaüs de Saint Luc et Castellum de Vespasien) avec une étude sur le stade au temps de Saint Luc et de Flavius Josèphe". Revue Archéologique. 19. E. Leroux: 223–71. JSTOR 41729389. En 1870, le wali de Damas et le consul général de France à Beyrouth étaient réunis à Jérusalem pour régler un différend grave qui s'était élevé entre le consulat français et la municipalité, à la suite de l'envahissement du couvent de Sion par les agents de l'autorité locale. L'affaire une fois réglée, les deux commissaires repartirent pour Jaffa et s'arrêtèrent à Lydda afin d'examiner une question, depuis longtemps pendante entre les Grecs et les Latins, et relative à la propriété des ruines de l'église Saint-Georges. Les Grecs soutenaient que les ruines de Lydda remontainent au Vie siècle, époque à laquelle une première église dediee a saint Georges fut édifiée à Lydda. Les Latins appuyaient leurs revendications sur ce fait que les ruines de Lydda ne pouvaient, historiquement, remonter plus haut que l'époque des Croisades. Pour éclairer sa religion, le commissaire français no [?] descendre à Lydda, et de lui donner notre avis sur l'é [?] bable [?] de la construction de l'église contestée. L'étude des ruines a démontré qu'il existe à Lydda fices [édifice?] absolument distincts dont le plus ancien, conver quée à une époque indéterminée, peut être attribué au ainsi que le démontre la forme de certains profils et qui sont encore visibles. Ce serait donc à cette mosquée qu'on pourrait appliquer la dition [?] conservée par les Grecs d'une église Saint-George sous l'empereur Justinien... Reconstruite encore une fois dans la deuxième moitié du XIIe siècle en dehors de V [l'?] ancienne église, la cathédrale de Lydda fut renversée par ordre de Saladin après la chute du royaume franc. Ce sont les ruines de cette dernière église qui ont été adjugées au clergé grec, en 1870, par le commissaire ottoman. Quant à l'édifice byzantin, qui n'avait été qu'en partie détruit à l'approche des Croisés, il fut converti en mosquée. La cour aux ablutions fut prise aux dépens de l'église du XIIe siècle, et le minaret construit dans l'angle nord-ouest de l'église byzantine... Après leur prise de possession, en 1870, les Grecs de Lydda s'empressèrent d'englober les ruines dans une bâtisse nouvelle, qui, par le fait, constitue une cinquième reconstruction de l'église Saint-Georges. L'église du Vie siècle est donc encore debout, en partie : c'est la mosquée. A chacune des démolitions, on respecta la partie orientale du monument, probablement parce qu'elle était la plus difficile à renverser.
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