Egeria’s Itinerarium and the Development of Sacred Spaces and Edifices in Jerusalem

Abstract

Abstract A Christian pilgrim, Egeria, travelled to Jerusalem and other biblical sites in the 380s and wrote detailed notes about the places she visited and about the liturgical life in Jerusalem. In this article, I will scrutinize Egeria’s view on the holy edi!ces and sacred spaces in Jerusalem, giving special attention to why some places were holy for her; and how Christians related to the holy places of “others,” that is, of pagans and Jews. For Egeria, several factors together made a space holy and worth visiting: biblical events that had occurred there, liturgical celebrations in her own day, and the physical seeing of the place as well as meeting of the holy people living at the site. "e new sacred topography expressed both continuity and discontinuity with the Old Testament times, but the Roman pagan dominance in Jerusalem was moved to the past.