Elena Lavrentyeva
The State Institute for Art Studies, Russia
Most of the Christian churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem were rebuilt or renovated by the middle of the 12th century. Throughout the century the Crusader church building was in search of an image of the Christian temple: its configuration and design, exterior and interior were changing step by step.
Christian temples make Jerusalem the main center of Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. It was the place of formation of workshops belonging to different architectural traditions.
The purpose of this work is to identify the traditions of the Christian East and Romanesque West in the architectural forms of the churches of Jerusalem. It helps us to define the architectural features of monuments rebuilt in the first half of the 12th century. Comparison of the first crusader’s church of St. Anne with other churches — Holy Sepulcher, St. Elena, St. James, etc. — can allow establishing similarities and distinctions of architectural traditions.
These monuments will be mainly investigated from the point of view of formation of a local architectural style. In spite of the fact that this question was considered in scholarly literature (R. Krauthaimer, R. Ousterhout, J. Folda, D. Pringle, etc.), so far it has not been an object of a special research.
The characteristic of the architectural tradition of Crusades will allow us to formulate new series of questions connected with the architectural heritage of this region in the 12th century.