The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a church in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The church contains, according to traditions dating back to at least the fourth century, the two holiest sites in Christianity: the site where Jesus was crucified, at a place known as Calvary or Golgotha, and Jesus's empty tomb, where he was buried and resurrected. The tomb is enclosed by a 19th-century shrine called the Aedicula. The Status Quo, an understanding between religious communities dating to 1757, applies to the site.
Clemens visited the site several times but his notes indicate he was there for just one day. The atmosphere struck him as gloomy and spiritually unmoving. He was fascinated by the latent hostility among the Christian sects sharing this shrine.
Bædeker (1898) page 59