Church of Saint George, Lod 4.03

The Church of Saint George is the major shrine for the fourth-century Christian martyr Saint George and is located in Lod, Israel. The current church, built in 1870, shares space with the El-Khidr Mosque .Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem received permission from the Ottoman authorities to build a church on the site of a previous basilica. The church is built over a ruined 15th-century structure, and occupies the north end of the nave and left-hand aisle of the earlier church, from which there survive two apses - which, contrary to the normal rule, face north rather than east.The Ottoman authorities stipulated, that part of the plot be made available for a mosque. Consequently, the current Church of St. George incorporates only the northeast corner of the Byzantine basilica. The prayer hall of the adjacent mosque contains a column that once stood in the nave of the basilica. The church contains the sarcophagus of St George.Bibliography