Church of the Nativity

Church of the Nativity, ancient church built over the grotto that is believed to be the site of the manger in which Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

The Church of the Nativity is the oldest church in the Holy Land. It was first built about 326, commissioned by the Roman emperor Constantine I and his mother, St. Helena. The foundation of the present building was built in the 6th century by the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and in the 12th century extensive renovation and decoration was carried out by the Crusaders. The Church of the Nativity was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2012, and since that time painstaking restoration of the structure and its interior has been undertaken, including to the main altar.

The simple interior contains four rows of monolithic columns carved from local stone and 44 white marble pillars. Remaining traces of frescoes of the Apostles and mosaics are evidence of the former striking surroundings of the church. The building houses a number of tributes to the birth of Christ, including an altar commemorating his circumcision and the Chapel of St. Joseph, comemmorating the appearance to him of an angel who told him to take Mary and baby Jesus to Egypt to flee Herod.

In 1852 the Roman Catholic, Armenian, and Greek Orthodox churches were given shared custody of the church. The three-sided building is encircled by the high walls of three convents representing each of these branches: the Franciscan Monastery and Church of St. Catherine on the northeast side, the Armenian Monastery, and the Greek Orthodox Monastery on the southeast side. The Greeks are responsible for the Grotto of the Nativity, which marks the traditional site of the birth of Jesus. A large fourteen-pointed silver star encased in white marble marks the scene of the nativity. Burning lamps around the star represent each of the three communities. On Christmas Eve, thousands gather in Manger Square, in front of the church, to sing carols.