Chapel of Saint Helena, Jerusalem

The Chapel of Saint Helena
Basic information
Location	Jerusalem
Affiliation	Armenian Apostolic Church
Architectural description
Architectural type	Crusader
Completed	12th century

The Chapel of Saint Helena is a 12th century Armenian church in the lower level of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

In the south east of the chapel there is a chair which was reputed to be a seat that was sat in by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine when she was looking for the True Cross.^[1] There are two apses in the church, one dedicated to Saint Helena and one to the penitent thief on the cross. The chapel is modestly adorned in memory of Saint Helena's simplicity.

The chronicler William of Tyre reports on the renovation of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the mid-12th century. The crusaders investigated the eastern ruins on the site, occasionally excavating through the rubble, and while attempting to reach the cistern where the True Cross was believed to have been found, they discovered part of the original ground level of Hadrian's temple enclosure; they decided to transform this space into a chapel dedicated to Helena, widening their original excavation tunnel into a proper staircase.

During 1973–1978 restoration works and excavations were made on the Holy Sepulchre To the east of the Chapel of St. Helena, the excavators discovered a void containing a 2nd century drawing of a roman ship,^[2] two low walls which supported the platform of Hadrian's 2nd century temple, and a higher 4th century wall built to support Constantine's basilica;^[3][4] the Armenian authorities have recently converted this archaeological space into the Chapel of Saint Vartan, and created an artificial walkway over the quarry on the north of the chapel, so that the new Chapel could be accessed (by permission) from the Chapel of St. Helena.

Gallery

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  The altar and floor mosaic

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  Mosaic closeup

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  Another view of the chapel

References

1. ^ http://www.jesusholyland.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56:chapel-of-saint-helena&catid=17:churches-of-jerusalem
2. ^ [1]^{[broken citation]}
3. ^ Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, The Holy Land, (1998), page 59
4. ^ the height difference can be easily seen - the yellowish wall on the left is the 4th century wall, the pinkish wall on the right is the 2nd century wall

Coordinates: 31°46′42.4″N 35°13′47.1″E / 31.778444°N 35.22975°E / 31.778444; 35.22975