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The Basilica of the Annunciation is a great modern church in Nazareth built over the grotto honored as the home of Mary, where the angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus.
It is one of the largest churches in the Middle East, and its walls are lined with images of the Virgin Mary donated by nations around the world, each in its own style. At its heart, below the main altar, is the ancient cave dwelling that tradition marks as the place of the Annunciation.
Nazareth itself is the town where Jesus spent his childhood and hidden years, and today it is the largest Arab city in Israel, with a strong and living Christian community.
Here the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her she would conceive and bear the Son of God, and here Jesus grew up in the home of Mary and Joseph.
The words of Mary in response are prayed by Christians to this day. "I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled." (Luke 1:38)
Why does Nazareth matter to pilgrims?
It is where God became one of us, in an ordinary home in an ordinary town. Kneeling at the grotto of the Annunciation, pilgrims often feel the wonder of the incarnation, that the Lord of all chose to grow up here, in a place so humble and so human.
In the hills of lower Galilee, a short drive from Cana and Mount Tabor, and the largest Arab city in Israel today.
The Basilica of the Annunciation over the grotto of Mary's home, and the nearby Church of Saint Joseph.
The angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary here, and Jesus grew up in this town.
Holy Sites
Tell us which sites you hope to see and we will shape a journey around them.
