The Impact of Christianity on the Urban Space

Jerusalem as a Holy City

According to the Book of Acts, Jerusalem was the location and center of the first Christian church. Jerusalem is a holy city for the major religions in the world including Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and can hence be described as a home to people of many faiths. The history of Christianity in the city is associated with the short ministry that Jesus held including His death and resurrection. Many Christianity events with a profound historical significance occurred in between 600AD-700AD. Constantine religious dedication paved the way for Jerusalem transformation to become the Holy City of Christianity, which also affected the significant urban spaces.

The Impact of Christianity on Urban Areas

The rise of Christianity significantly changed the urban areas of Jerusalem after Constantine won the battle of Milvian Bridge and made Christianity the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. He started building numerous shrines to Christian martyrs in Rome, and after that, other Christians started noticing ascribing sacredness to physical spaces. Besides, Christians built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the alleged location of Jesus Christ’s tomb (Neuhaus 2005). Such activities and buildings made specific places famous as they had sentimental value to Christians. Relatively, due to Christianity activities that were happening in Jerusalem, the city was recognized as one of the Pentarchy hence added to its importance as an urban area.

Development of Urban Centers

Summarizing, the holy places attracted and brought people together who ended up settling around the buildings or sacred locations and develop the areas into urban centers — the major Christian buildings that occurred during the rise of Christianity thus significantly impacted the urban space positively as the places developed to emerge as major cities.

Reference

Neuhaus, D., 2005. Contemporary Jewish Israeli Views on Christianity and Christians. Christianity and Jerusalem, pp.1-30.