Du caveau-reliquaire à la grande crypte de pélerinage : un « mausolée » pour Hilarion. Les vestiges de Umm el-'Amr à Nuseirat (bande de Gaza)

The archaeological remains of this proto-byzantine monastery are located in Umm el-’Amr 10 km south of Gaza. Covering more than 14 000 m², the site is dated from the 4^thcent. to the late 8^thcent., from Late Antiquity to the Islamic period. The architectural complex is attributed to Saint Hilarion, the father of Palestinian monasticism. The monastery is divided into two juxtaposed architectural poles, a religious one to the south around the sanctuary, a second one to the north around a bath complex and a building dedicated to the pilgrims’accommodation. At the moment five successive periods for the church and three for the bath complex have been revealed. In its architectural later version, the monastery is the biggest one in Palestine and one of the most important in the region. Here, the memory of the saint will be perpetuated in several successive churches and in a monumental crypt which dimensions remained unparalleled in the Middle East.