Found After 1400 Years—The Magnificent Nea

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Byzantine Jerusalem was Christian Jerusalem—par excellence. The Byzantine era began when the Emperor Constantine—soon to convert to Christianity—became master of Palestine in 324 A.D. It did not end in Jerusalem until the Patriarch Sophronius surrendered the city to the Moslem caliph Omar in the spring of 638.

The Byzantine period was a prosperous one, and Jerusalem shared in this prosperity. Marked by intensive building activity, this period saw almost every inch of the city covered with construction of one kind or another. After Constantine decided to make Jerusalem the Holy City of Christendom, gifts and pilgrims followed. Gradually Jerusalem was transformed into a city of churches and monasteries, hospices and asylums for pilgrims—as depicted on the mid-6th century Madaba map.

Byzantine building activity in Jerusalem can be divided into three major stages.

The first began with the visit to Jerusalem of Constantine’s mother, Helena, in 326. The most important monument of this period is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (See J.-P. B. Ross, “The Evolution of a Church—Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre,” BAR 02:03).

The second stage of Byzantine building activity is associated with another woman—the Empress Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II. After separating from her husband in 443–444, she lived in Jerusalem until her death in 460, Among other activities, Eudocia repaired and enlarged the city wall, founded a home for the aged and established a church dedicated to the first martyr, Saint Stephen.