Site in Jerusalem where the crucifixion of Christ took place and name given to representations of that event. It is identified as the Place of the Skull in the New Testament Gospels and was at that time located outside the city walls, not far from a gate and near a road, a garden and at least one tomb. These landmarks of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection have been revered by Christians since at least the 4th century, when Emperor Constantine the Great excavated the area and erected on top of it the basilican church of the Holy Sepulchre (c. 325–36; see JERUSALEM, §II, 2). The rock of Calvary, originally 4 m high, was cut and reshaped to serve in the basilica as a pedestal for a great jewelled cross placed on top of it. Calvary’s elevation does not appear in the earliest depictions of Christ’s crucifixion, but it gradually develops in art, for example in the Rabbula Gospels of 586 (Florence, Bib. Medicea-Laurenziana, MS. Plut. I.56) and the Utrecht Psalter of c. 830 (Utrecht, Bib. Rijksuniv., MS. 32), reaching at times absurd proportions, as in the painting by Lucas van Valckenborch, Landscape with Jerusalem, Christ Carrying the Cross and Preparations on the Hill of Calvary (1567; sold London, Christie’s, 6 July 1984).

• Calvary
  • Cross, §I: Introduction
  • Jerusalem, §II, 2(i): Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 326–1099
  • Jerusalem, §II, 2(ii): Church of the Holy Sepulchre, after 1099