Church of the Seat of Mary
The Church of the Seat of Mary, Church of the Kathisma or Old Kathisma being the name mostly used in literature, was a 5th-century Byzantine church in the Holy Land, located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, on what is today known as Hebron Road. It was built on the alleged resting place of Mary on the road to Bethlehem mentioned in the apocryphal Proto-Gospel of James. The church was built when Marian devotion first rose to great importance, following the First Council of Ephesus of 431. It is one of the earliest churches known to have been dedicated to the Theotokos in the entire Byzantine Empire.
Church of the Seat of Mary - Church of the Kathisma
Church of the Kathisma and Givat HaMatos
Remains of the church
A martyrium (Latin) or martyrion (Greek), sometimes anglicized martyry, is a church or shrine built over the tomb of a Christian martyr. It is associated with a specific architectural form, centered on a central element and thus built on a central plan, that is, of a circular or sometimes octagonal or cruciform shape.
The largely 5th-century interior of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome