Jerusalem - Church of St John the Baptist

On leaving the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem we turn right and continue west into Christian Quarter Street. Turning left along this street, we come in some 40m/45yds to the entrance (on right) of the Crusader church of St John the Baptist, built about 1170. It stands to the rear of a forecourt which is entered through a doorway marked with a cross. Built into the facade are re-used Roman stones. The church, on a trefoil plan without a nave, is now occupied by the Greek Orthodox. Facing the entrance, which is at the west end, is the wide iconostasis, behind which are the eastern conch and the altar. To left and right are the north and south conches.

The church occupies the site of an earlier building, a chapel of the fifth century. This is now the crypt of the later church, but, as the old window openings show, it originally stood on ground level. A crystal reliquary found here, originally hidden to save it from the Arabs, is said now to be preserved in the treasury of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (not open to the public). This first church was dedicated to St John the Compassionate, Patriarch of Alexandria.