Basilica of the Annunciation

Basilica of the Annunciation tickets: which one to buy

The basilica dominates the centre of Nazareth and is free to enter. Dress rules are enforced at the gate and wraps are provided. Almost all organised visits come as day trips from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or the Sea of Galilee, combining the church with Cana, Mount Tabor and the sites around the lake, and those trips allow about an hour here, which is enough for both levels but not for the old market.

Guides based in Nazareth offer walking tours of the town itself, taking in the Greek Orthodox church at the spring, the white mosque, the souk and the restored Ottoman houses, and that is a better day if you have one to spend. Note that two churches claim the Annunciation, this Catholic one and the Orthodox one at the well, and seeing both takes fifteen minutes of walking and explains a great deal about how the traditions differ. Photography is permitted throughout except during mass in the upper church.

Visiting Basilica of the Annunciation: what to see

The site has carried a church since the Byzantine period, rebuilt by crusaders and destroyed afterwards, and the present basilica was completed in 1969 to a design by Giovanni Muzio. It is the largest church in the Middle East and is built on two levels. The lower one is dim and cavernous, arranged around the grotto held by Catholic tradition to be the house of Mary, with the excavated remains of the earlier churches and of first-century Nazareth exposed around it.

The upper church is a wide modern space under a lantern shaped like a lily, opening downward over the grotto so that the two levels connect. Along the walls, and around the courtyard outside, hang large panels of the Virgin and Child donated by Catholic communities from dozens of countries, each in its own national style, which makes the corridor a peculiar and rewarding survey of twentieth-century religious art. A separate church next door, built over what is presented as the workshop of Joseph, is included in the same visit.

Basilica of the Annunciation opening hours and the best time to go

The basilica closes for a long midday break and on Sunday mornings for services. The feast of the Annunciation on the twenty-fifth of March fills the building, and Christmas in Nazareth is a substantial civic occasion with a parade in mid-December and lights across the town. Spring is the best season in Galilee, with the hills green and the temperature mild; summer is hot and the town is built on a slope, which makes walking hard work.

Mornings are quieter inside. The old market is closed on Sundays and busiest on Saturdays. Restaurants here are among the best in the region and are reason enough to stay for lunch rather than eating on a coach. Allow an hour for the two levels of the church and another for the walk down to the spring and back. Buses from the lower town stop two minutes from the gate and run frequently except on Saturdays.