DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10357#0154
128
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
triple apse are frequently seen east of Jordan, as in the church on Mount Nebo, and in
those of Ziza. Beneath the central apse is the Grotto of the Nativity.
The church escaped destruction when the Caliph Hakim laid waste the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre and all the other sacred sites. It was protected by special efforts of the
Crusaders in the First Crusade, in a.d. 1099, and again, in the Sixth Crusade, Frederick II.
succeeded in preserving it; and within its walls Baldwin I., King of Jerusalem, was crowned.
We are told that Baldwin refused to be crowned with a circlet of gold in the city where our
Lord had worn His crown of thorns, and therefore selected Bethlehem as a holy site, but
CHAPEL OF THE NATIVITY, IN THE CRYPT OF THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY, BETHLEHEM.
The star within the grotto on the left marks " the Place of the Nativity ;" on the right is the Altar of the Adoration of the Magi.
out of view from Jerusalem, the city of Christ's sufferings. His predecessor Godfrey, the
first king, in the like spirit, had refused to assume the crown at all within the Holy City,
and declined any higher title than Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. But the English visitor
will not forget to notice its roof, no longer of cedar of Lebanon, but actually of English
oak—huge beams provided by King Edward IV., a.d. 1482, in conjunction with Philip
of Burgundy—and once covered with English lead, which the Moslems have stripped
to provide themselves with ammunition. The roof is framed like one of a little earlier
period which still exists intact on the dormitory of the Benedictine Priory of Durham, now
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
triple apse are frequently seen east of Jordan, as in the church on Mount Nebo, and in
those of Ziza. Beneath the central apse is the Grotto of the Nativity.
The church escaped destruction when the Caliph Hakim laid waste the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre and all the other sacred sites. It was protected by special efforts of the
Crusaders in the First Crusade, in a.d. 1099, and again, in the Sixth Crusade, Frederick II.
succeeded in preserving it; and within its walls Baldwin I., King of Jerusalem, was crowned.
We are told that Baldwin refused to be crowned with a circlet of gold in the city where our
Lord had worn His crown of thorns, and therefore selected Bethlehem as a holy site, but
CHAPEL OF THE NATIVITY, IN THE CRYPT OF THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY, BETHLEHEM.
The star within the grotto on the left marks " the Place of the Nativity ;" on the right is the Altar of the Adoration of the Magi.
out of view from Jerusalem, the city of Christ's sufferings. His predecessor Godfrey, the
first king, in the like spirit, had refused to assume the crown at all within the Holy City,
and declined any higher title than Baron of the Holy Sepulchre. But the English visitor
will not forget to notice its roof, no longer of cedar of Lebanon, but actually of English
oak—huge beams provided by King Edward IV., a.d. 1482, in conjunction with Philip
of Burgundy—and once covered with English lead, which the Moslems have stripped
to provide themselves with ammunition. The roof is framed like one of a little earlier
period which still exists intact on the dormitory of the Benedictine Priory of Durham, now