Lod - St George's Church

To the left of the shops at the El-Chodr Mosque Complex in Lod is the entrance to the Greek Orthodox church of St George, rebuilt in 1870. Over the doorway is a relief of St George and the dragon. The church occupies the north end of the nave and left-hand aisle of the Crusader church, from which there survive two apses - which, contrary to the normal rule, face north rather than east - and two columns. The painting of the interior rather spoils the imposing spatial effect. Between the two columns, in front of the iconostasis, are two flights of steps leading down to the crypt. This contains the sarcophagus of St George, on the lid of which (restored, as an inscription records, in 1871, in the time of Patriarch Cyril) is a likeness of the