Church of St. John the Baptist

The Church of St. John the Baptist is marked by a prominent silver dome that rises above the stone rooftops of the Christian Quarter. This site contains what is often cited as the oldest church building in Jerusalem, with its foundation dating back to a fifth-century Byzantine crypt. The main upper structure visible today was constructed in the eleventh century by merchants from the maritime republic of Amalfi. They established a hospice here for pilgrims, which eventually served the Knights Hospitaller as they cared for those injured during the crusader siege of ten ninety-nine.