The first historian of the Church describes, as an eyewitness, the first great churches built after the persecutions: the cathedral of Tyre, whose dedication sermon he preached in about 315, and Constantine’s complex over the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem.
Book X of the Ecclesiastical History includes Eusebius’s sermon at the dedication of the new cathedral of Tyre, built by Bishop Paulinus. He walks his hearers through it from outside in: a wide wall enclosing the whole precinct; a great gateway toward the rising sun; a forecourt open to the sky, with porticoes on its four sides and fountains facing the church so that those entering could wash; three doors, the middle one the largest; side halls; and within, the thrones, benches and the altar in the middle, fenced with a wooden lattice.
The Life of Constantine (III.25–40) describes the emperor’s buildings at the Holy Sepulchre: the rock-cut tomb adorned with columns, a great court open to the sky with porticoes, the basilica with its hemispherical apse ringed by twelve columns, and a forecourt and gateway opening onto the main street of the market. Together the two passages are the fullest literary description of an early Christian church complex.
The book, part by part
I Ecclesiastical History X.4: the cathedral of Tyre
Enclosure, eastern gateway, colonnaded forecourt with fountains, three doors, the basilica and its furnishings.
II Life of Constantine III.25–40: the Holy Sepulchre
The tomb, the court, the basilica and its apse, the forecourt on the market street.