Saint John Sepulchre in Brindisi. An exemplary case of derivation
Saint John Sepulchre in Brindisi, among the numerous partial imitations existing in Italy, is the most
faithful reproduction, albeit at a small-scale, of the Holy Sepulchre as rebuilt in Jerusalem by the will of
the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Monomachos between 1042 and 1048, after the destruction of the
original complex ordered by Caliph al-Hakim.
The artifacts found contradict the theory that the church was built on an existing circular building.
Saint John Sepulchre is the spatial result of an intention of geometric mimesis, as well as devotional and liturgical, and not the mediation between a preexistence and the aim to duplicate the original one. The
Apulian church is a central plan building which, as a partial reproduction of the original, gives rise to an
autonomous building capable of representing and synthesizing the entire hierosolimitan architecture, a simulacrum able to replace, spatially and devotionally, the original and to relive the events and mysteries
of salvation.
