Kathisma Church (ruins) (Jerusalem)

 place with historical importance, archaeological site, byzantine, mosaic

The remains of an octagonal Byzantine church built on the place where the Virgin Mary is said to have rested on her way to Bethlehem to give birth to Jesus. In the center of the large (43m. x 52m.) church, with its attractive floors of mosaic and marble, is a holy stone, "The Seat" (kathisma, in Greek), where by tradition Mary rested on her journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The basis for this early Christian tradition seems to be an apocryphal document, the Protoevangelium of James, usually dated to the 2nd century. The church itself dates to the Byzantine period (5th to 6th centuries CE), a fine example of the handful of octagonal "martyrium" churches which have been found in the country.

The church'e 1993 discovery resulted from an infrastructure project on land belonging to the Greek Orthodox, and the subsequent rescue excavation was headed by the Israel Antiquities Authority, with Greek participation. Though the mosaics are kept covered, the site still (in 2013) awaits proper protection and visitor access. Significantly, this is a church whose location (until the modern discovery) had been lost for perhaps a thousand years, its existence known only from Byzantine sources!