Scandinavian pilgrims and the churches of the Holy Land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

The accounts of Scandinavian journeys to the Holy Land in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, whether preserved in sagas, chronicles, itineraries or charters, not only constitute a valuable source of information about travel, warfare, politics and the ideology of north European pilgrims and crusaders, but also contribute more specifically to the body of western European literature from this period reflecting the state of the Holy Land and its inhabitants at the time of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. This chapter focuses on just one aspect of the latter: the information that such texts give us about the condition of the Holy Places and their sanctuaries and churches