THE BASILICA OF THE ANNUNCIATION is the largest of all the churches in the modern town of Nazareth. It celebrates the announcement brought to Mary by the angel Gabriel that she was to become the mother of the Messiah.

The earliest church was built here in 356 AD by Helena, mother of Constantine, the Emperor who established Christianity as the state religion throughout the Roman Empire. Queen Helena erected a shrine over the small GROTTO OF THE ANNUNCIATION, held by tradition to be part of the house of the family of Mary and the spot where she received the announcement from the angel Gabriel.

Destroyed and rebuilt many times, Nazareth was the Crusader capital of the Galilee in the 12-13th centuries. Tancred, the first Prince of the Galilee, rebuilt much of the town that he found in ruins.

In 1263, the Mameluk leader Sultan Baybars, destroyed the great cathedral erected here by the Europeans.  All that remains of that magnificent structure today are several carved capitals depicting events of the life of Christ and the Crusader victory over the Moslems.

Dominated by the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth was described by St. Jerome in the 4th century BC as `the Flower of the Galilee’.

Extensive excavations carried out in the 1950-60’s revealed remains of a Byzantine mosaic floor and a stone column on which the words `Ave Maria’ were carved in antiquity – probably by a visiting pilgrim. Completed in 1969, the present basilica is maintained by monks of the Franciscan order.
For thousands of years the well has been one of the focal points of village life.
This is especially true for women whose job