Church of the Nativity

Church of the Nativity tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free and no ticket exists; the queue for the grotto is the cost. Almost all visitors arrive on a tour from Jerusalem, because Bethlehem lies in the West Bank and crossing the checkpoint is easier with a Palestinian-registered vehicle and a guide who knows the procedure; those half-day trips cost a moderate amount and usually include Manger Square, the Milk Grotto and a souvenir workshop. Israeli hire cars are generally not insured to enter Area A, so driving yourself is inadvisable.

Palestinian buses run from East Jerusalem for a few shekels and the walk from the bus stop takes fifteen minutes. Guides wait in the square and charge a fixed rate. Nothing is booked in advance, and the queue to the grotto can run to two hours at Christmas and to twenty minutes on an ordinary weekday morning. The Franciscan church of St Catherine next door, from which the midnight mass is broadcast each Christmas, is entered from the same courtyard and is never busy.

Visiting Church of the Nativity: what to see

Constantine ordered a church here around 330 over the cave that second-century tradition already identified as the birthplace of Jesus; Justinian rebuilt it in the sixth century and that building substantially survives, which makes it the oldest major church still in use anywhere. The Crusaders added mosaics and a painted colonnade, and fragments of both have been recovered in a restoration completed in the 2010s that lifted centuries of soot off the walls.

The main door is a metre and a half high, cut down in Ottoman times to stop horsemen riding in, and everyone stoops to enter. Below the altar, a silver star set in marble marks the traditional spot of the birth, with fourteen points and a Latin inscription, and pilgrims kneel to touch it. Three denominations share the building under a nineteenth-century arrangement, and the divisions are visible everywhere. The floor of the nave lifts in places to show mosaics from the Constantinian church beneath, laid in the fourth century and uncovered in the 1930s.

Church of the Nativity opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from early morning to evening, with different closing times in summer and winter and services throughout, during which the grotto closes to visitors. Christmas is celebrated three times, by the Latin church on 25 December, the Greek and Syriac on 6 January and the Armenians on 18 January, and the town is full for each. The quietest hours are early morning before the Jerusalem coaches arrive.

Modest dress is required and enforced. Photography is allowed except during services. Allow an hour including the queue. The Milk Grotto is two minutes away, and the separation wall with its murals is a ten-minute walk and part of what most visitors come away remembering. Manger Square has cafes and a tourist office, and the Palestinian Heritage Centre a short walk away sells embroidery made locally rather than imported.