The First Church
Image idea: a drawing of the original church.
Constantine’s builders cut away the hillside around the tomb, leaving it standing alone as a block of rock. They put a small shrine around it and built a huge church over the whole site.
The church was finished in about AD 335. From then on, the tomb became one of the most visited places in the Christian world.
Pilgrims came from across the Roman world to see it. Some wrote about their trips, and their notes help historians understand what the tomb and church looked like in those early centuries.