Crusader Church

Crusader Church

View of the Crusader Church looking north that was built ca. 1136 by King Fulk of Anjou.  It consisted of a nave and two aisles and was built in the Romanesque style.  In the left of the photograph is the entrance to the church from the south.  The wall with the three arches separates the north aisle from the nave—which is outlined by the standing columns.  The stones closing two of the archways are not Crusader.  They were part of a later Islamic structure that incorporated the Crusader Church.


A Crusader fortress was built at Beit Gibelin by King Fulk of Anjou on the ruins of an Early Islamic fort.  This was granted to the Hospitallers in 1136.  Under their patronage and protection, a civilian settlement of 32 Frankish families settled there in AD 1160.