The Round Church Movement in Twelfth-Century England: Crusaders, Pilgrims, and the Holy Sepulchre

Between the western capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and its return to local control in 1187, English builders constructed fifteen copies of the Anastasis Rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the site traditionally associated with Jesus's resurrection and empty tomb; a sixteenth round-naved church was built when western Christians held Jerusalem by treaty. The timing of these Holy Sepulchre copies is remarkable within a broader European context. While continental Christians built churches in remembrance of the Holy Sepulchre for centuries, English worshipers did not appropriate the Anastasis form until after the First Crusade (1096-1102). The Round Church Movement in Twelfth-Century England: Crusaders, Pilgrims, and the Holy Sepulchre, analyzes these distinctive buildings within their local architectural, religious, cultural, political, and landscape contexts. Using architectural evidence as primary source material, this project challenges the accepted narrative of England’s engagement with Jerusalem in the twelfth century.