Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Adamnan's De Locis Sanctis (Author: Adamnan of Iona)

Chapter/toc 2

CONCERNING A CHURCH OF ROUND SHAPE THAT IS
20] BUILT OVER THE LORD'S SEPULCHRE, (AND CONCERNING THE SHAPE OF THE SEPULCHRE ITSELF AND OF ITS DOMED STRUCTURE)

Arculf then, when we questioned him about the dwellings of the city itself, said in reply: ‘I recall seeing and visiting many buildings in the
25] city, and often studying several great stone mansions built with wondrous skill throughout the whole great city within the surrounding walls.’ But I think we must now pass over all these, except for those structures which have been wondrously raised in the holy places, the places that is of the cross and resurrection. We questioned the holy Arculf carefully concerning
30] these, especially concerning the sepulchre of the Lord and the church built over it, the shape of which Arculf himself depicted for me on a waxed tablet.

Well, this extremely large church, all of stone, and shaped to wondrous roundness on every side, rises up from its foundations in three walls.
35] Between each two walls there is a broad passage, and three altars too are in three skilfully constructed places of the centre wall. Twelve stone

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columns of wondrous magnitude support this round and lofty church, where are the altars mentioned, one looking south, the second north, the third towards the west. There are two fourfold portals ([four] entrances that is), which cut across the three solid walls facing one another with
5] passageways in between. Four of these [exits] face the Vulturnus wind (which is also called Caecias): the other four face Eurus.

Centrally placed in the interior of this round building is a round domed structure, carved out of one and the same rock, in which it is possible for thrice three men to pray standing, and from the top of a fairly tall
10] man's head, when standing, to the roof of the domed structure there is a space measuring a foot and a half. The entrance of this domed structure faces east. Outside, it is completely covered with choice marble, and its summit, adorned on the outside with gold, supports a fairly large golden cross. The sepulchre of the Lord is in the northern part of the domed
15] structure, carved out of one and the same rock, but the floor of the domed covering is lower than the place of the sepulchre. For from its floor to the side-edge of the sepulchre one can perceive a space of about three hands' height. Arculf, who used often to visit the sepulchre of the Lord, and made the measurement, told me this definitely.


20]

At this juncture, one should note the propriety, or rather the discrepancy of nomenclature, as between monumentum and sepulchrum. That round domed structure that has been often mentioned above, the evangelists call by another name, monumentum, to the door of which they state the stone was rolled and rolled away from its door when the
25] Lord arose. The sepulchrum properly so called is the place inside the domed structure, in the northern portion of the monumentum that is, in which was laid the body of the Lord, wrapped in linen cloths. The length of this, as Arculf measured it with his own hand, made seven feet. The sepulchrum then is not, as some people wrongly think, a double
30] structure, with a kind of border cut out of the rock itself to separate and divide the two legs and the two thighs: it is undivided from head to foot, providing a pallet large enough for one man lying on his back. It is in the shape of a cave, with the entrance on the side, directly facing the southern portion of the monumentum, and with a low, man-made vault

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rising above. Now in this sepulchrum, according to the number of the twelve holy apostles, twelve burning lamps shine always day and night. Four of them are placed low down at the bottom of the sepulchral bed: the other eight are placed higher up above the margin towards the righthand
5] side. They are fed with oil and shine brightly.

It seems noteworthy moreover that the mausoleum of the Saviour, the domed structure that has often been mentioned above, might correctly be called a cavern or cave; and doubtless the prophet prophesies concerning the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ in it when he says ‘he
10] shall dwell in a high cave of the strongest rock’, and shortly afterwards (concerning the resurrection of the same Lord), in order to make the apostles rejoice, he adds: ‘you shall see the king with glory’.

This drawing appended indicates the shape of the round church mentioned above, with the round domed structure placed in the centre
15] of it, in the northern portion of which is the Lord's sepulchre. It exhibits also plans of three other churches, of which there will be an account below. We have drawn these plans of the four churches after the model which (as already stated) the holy Arculf sketched for me on a wax surface. Not that it is possible to exhibit their likeness in a drawing,
20] but in order that the monumentum of the Lord might be shown, placed as it is in the middle of the round church, albeit in a rough sketch, or that it might be made clear which church is situated near or far away from it.