The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint John the Baptist stands in the Muristan area of the Christian Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City. Merchants from Amalfi built the above-ground church in the eleventh century over an older structure. The crypt below dates from the late Roman and Byzantine period, and tradition credits Empress Eudocia with founding the earlier building.
The church follows a trefoil plan with three apses, a long narthex and a dome carried by four pillars. Its adjoining hospital treated the Crusaders in 1099, and the Knights Hospitaller took their name from the church. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate acquired it in the late fifteenth century.
Inside are a green and gold iconostasis dated 1853, a jeweled reliquary said to hold a fragment of the Baptist's skull, and twentieth-century frescoes by Michael and Gabriel Moroshan. The crypt was excavated in 2010 and 2011.
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