Medieval and Renaissance ‘copies’ of the Holy Sepulchre are striking for their visual inaccuracies. This article proposes that these structures were never meant to serve only as visual copies, but that they were intended to be copies of the complete sensory experience of visiting the Holy Sepulchre. Focusing on the Jerusalem Chapel in Bruges and the Sacro Monte of Varallo, I posit that these sites functioned as sensory simulacra that replicated essential spaces, actions and stimuli experienced in Jerusalem by pilgrims at the Holy Sepulchre. European copies enabled devotees to become actors engaged in kinetic devotional practices like those performed in Jerusalem. This study reveals that European copies of the Holy Sepulchre were both more complex and more successful than has previously been recognized.