DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0153
BETHLEHEM.
t 27
convents gradually rose as accretions after the time of Jerome. The Emperor Manuel
Comnenus, about a.d. 1160, covered the walls with
the glass Byzantine mosaics, a large portion of which,
though sadly mutilated, still remain ; but the central
basilica (as shown in the steel plate), with its noble
monolith shafts of red and white marble, and the
Corinthian capitals of a late style, with the cross
sculptured on them, are agreed by the best ar-
chitectural authorities to be
veritable Constantinian work.
The plan of the building is
exactly the same as that which
EXTERNAL STAIRWAY OF A HOUSE AT BETHLEHEM.
Two women grinding corn on the stairs.
Eusebius gives of the
Church of the Holy
Sepulchre at Jerusalem
as erected by Constan-
tine. We have been
struck, when examining the numberless
ruined churches of the plains of Moab and
Gilead, by the miniature resemblance which
most of them bear in design to this, point-
ing pretty clearly to their date. There is
an outer court or western porch, now much
dilapidated, then the wide nave with two
rows of eleven columns each on either side,
forming four aisles, and a shallow chancel
of three apses. The double aisles and
t 27
convents gradually rose as accretions after the time of Jerome. The Emperor Manuel
Comnenus, about a.d. 1160, covered the walls with
the glass Byzantine mosaics, a large portion of which,
though sadly mutilated, still remain ; but the central
basilica (as shown in the steel plate), with its noble
monolith shafts of red and white marble, and the
Corinthian capitals of a late style, with the cross
sculptured on them, are agreed by the best ar-
chitectural authorities to be
veritable Constantinian work.
The plan of the building is
exactly the same as that which
EXTERNAL STAIRWAY OF A HOUSE AT BETHLEHEM.
Two women grinding corn on the stairs.
Eusebius gives of the
Church of the Holy
Sepulchre at Jerusalem
as erected by Constan-
tine. We have been
struck, when examining the numberless
ruined churches of the plains of Moab and
Gilead, by the miniature resemblance which
most of them bear in design to this, point-
ing pretty clearly to their date. There is
an outer court or western porch, now much
dilapidated, then the wide nave with two
rows of eleven columns each on either side,
forming four aisles, and a shallow chancel
of three apses. The double aisles and