The Church of the Resurrection, also known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, was destroyed on this day 1,001 years ago. A temple to the goddess Aphrodite had been built on the site early in the second century AD, but in the fourth century Emperor Constantine ordered that the building be demolished and replaced with a church. The site was venerated as the location of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, and is said to include the tomb where he was buried. During construction of the church, the True Cross is said to have been discovered.
Although the historical sources from which these claims come are highly doubtful, the building became a significant site for Eastern Christians. After Jerusalem was conquered by Caliph Umar the Great in 637 a long period of Muslim rule followed. For several centuries the Muslim rulers preserved the rights of Christians to freedom of religion and the city’s Christian sites were protected from attack.
However, in 1009 the Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, annoyed at the large scale of the annual Easter pilgrimage to Jerusalem, ordered the destruction of churches and synagogues in Palestine and Egypt, and so the Church of the Resurrection was razed to the ground. The outrage that this produced in Europe was one of the factors that led to the Crusades. The church was rebuilt, but relations between Christians and Muslims never fully recovered.