page_title: Church of the Holy Sepulchre
section_title: Façade and entrance
hierarchical_section_title: Church of the Holy Sepulchre / Description / Façade and entrance
caption_attribution_description: English: Cropped image of title page of The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia / from drawings made on the spot by David Roberts
context_page_description: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church contains, according to traditions dating back to at least the fourth century, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he was buried and resurrected. The tomb is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicula. The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.
  Within the church proper are the last four stations of the Via Dolorosa, representing the final episodes of the Passion of Jesus. The church has been a major Christian pilgrimage destination since its creation in the fourth century, as the traditional site of the resurrection of Christ, thus its original Greek name, Church of the Anastasis.
context_section_description: The wooden doors that compose the main entrance are the original, highly carved arched doors. Today, only the left-hand entrance is currently accessible, as the right doorway has long since been bricked up. The entrance to the church is in the south transept, through the crusader façade, in the parvis of a larger courtyard. This is found past a group of streets winding through the outer Via Dolorosa by way of a local souq in the Muristan. This narrow way of access to such a large structure has proven to be hazardous at times. For example, when a fire broke out in 1840, dozens of pilgrims were trampled to death.
  Since the 7th century, the Muslim Nuseibeh family has been responsible for opening the door as an impartial party to the church's denominations. In 1187, Saladin took the church from the Crusaders and entrusted the Joudeh Al-Goudia family with its key, which is made of iron and 30 centimetres (12 in) long; the Nuseibehs remain its doorkeepers.
  The 'immovable ladder' stands beneath a window on the façade.
caption: 1842 lithograph based on artwork by David Roberts, in The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia
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