ABSTRACT
The church was thoroughly reveted with an uninterrupted cycle of mosaics decorating the upper layers of the walls in the nave, the transepts and the main apse. The mosaics were meant to have a strong impact on beholders and, therefore, they were embellished with very prominent ornamental motifs. Fantastic, jewelled plants, inspired from the décors of the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, were used to separate the symbolic representations of the councils. Mosaics decorated all the walls in the Church of the Nativity. The decorative cycle included a Tree of Jesse on the counter-facade, whereas the provincial councils of Palestine, the seven Ecumenical Councils, a lower band showing Christ’s ancestors and an upper band between the windows with full-length images of angels were put on display in the central nave. The Ecumenical Councils are represented with simpler images than those of the provincial councils on the north wall.
