The conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders did not entail large-scale destruction. The newly conquered city was left largely unchanged, with the exception of its partly destroyed fortifications. The small citadel on the western edge was enlarged and later transformed into the royal palace. In the middle of the city, multi-aisled marketplaces were constructed, but in the nearly ninety years of Crusader Jerusalem almost all the surviving late antique churches, which mostly lay in ruins, were replaced by new buildings.

In place of the former Martyrium Basilica, destroyed in 1009 by al-Hakim, a large monastery and a choir were built next to the Holy Sepulchre. The Dome of the Rock was converted into a church, but without any architectural changes. St. Mary on Mt. Zion was immediately rebuilt, as was the Church of Ascension on the Mt. of Olives. At the same time Augustinian canons were installed in all four main churches.

The foundation of monasteries by the Benedictines was associated with the churches of the pre-Crusader period: St. Anne, St. Mary Magdalena, St. Mary Latin, St. Mary Major, St. Mary in the Jehoshaphat Valley, and the church built later in the Garden of Gethsemane.

When the first Templar Order was founded in 1118/1119, it was placed in the Templum Salominis, the former Aqsa Mosque. The main church of the Order of St. John, St. John the Baptist, was located beside its hospital. The German Order was established to provide German pilgrims with a hospice and a hospital (St. Mary of the Germans). Many other churches were constructed, though it is unknown to which orders they belonged.

Regarding the tradition of the stations on the Via Dolorosa: Because of Theodoric’s mistaken comparison of the former Antonia Fortress with the house of Pontius Pilatus, four chapels were erected there to commemorate the Trial of Jesus: “Moustier du Repos,” the Chapel of the Flagellation, a third chapel dedicated as the House of Herod, and St. Mary de Spasmo. Although no procession along the Via Dolorosa is attested for the Crusader period, the evidence suggests that fourteen stations, having been inspired by Franciscan piety, were built on this street in the Mamluk period—in Jerusalem as well as in western Europe.