These are the places in Israel that this guide connects with a Bible passage. Each card gives the passage, the start of the site’s history and a link to its full profile, map location and sources.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth enshrines a grotto that many Christians venerate as part of Mary's home, where, according to Luke's Gospel, the angel Gabriel announced that she would bear a son. The identification of this grotto belongs to tradition: the Gospel names Nazareth, not a particular house.
CHURCH BUILDING
The present Greek Orthodox church developed in the eighteenth century beside an older underground sanctuary. Eastern tradition connects its water source with Gabriel’s greeting to Mary.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre stands over the places Christians have venerated since at least the fourth century as Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, and as his tomb. About the year 135 the emperor Hadrian built a pagan temple on the site.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Armenian cathedral took shape in the twelfth century and honours two saints named James: the son of Zebedee and James, the Lord’s brother. Armenian tradition associates their relics with the sanctuary.
CHURCH BUILDING
Patriarch Maximos III Mazloum inaugurated the Melkite cathedral and patriarchal residence in 1848. The complex reflects the nineteenth-century consolidation of the Melkite Greek Catholic presence in Jerusalem.
CHURCH BUILDING
Saint Mark’s is a Syriac Orthodox sanctuary associated by tradition with the house of Mary, mother of John Mark, and the Last Supper. Medieval writings mention a House of Mark.
CHURCH BUILDING
Originally a Crusader church, the sanctuary was acquired by the Franciscans in 1838 and restored by Antonio Barluzzi in 1929. It commemorates the scourging of Jesus within Jerusalem’s traditional Way of the Cross.
CHURCH BUILDING
Franciscan friar Wendelin Hinterkeuser rebuilt this sanctuary in 1904 above a rediscovered medieval church. Its dedication commemorates Jesus’ condemnation and the taking up of the cross.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Church of All Nations, also called the Basilica of the Agony, stands in the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. It commemorates the prayer of Jesus on the night before his arrest, as the Gospels describe it.
CHURCH BUILDING
Consecrated in 1888, this Russian church on the Mount of Olives was built in memory of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Architect David Grimm designed it.
CHURCH BUILDING
The nineteenth-century Carmelite foundation on the Mount of Olives preserves a place of pilgrimage associated with Jesus teaching his disciples. Its name refers to the Lord’s Prayer.
CHURCH BUILDING
Built in 1955 to Antonio Barluzzi’s design, this Mount of Olives church commemorates Jesus weeping over Jerusalem in Luke’s Gospel. The association of the episode with this location is traditional.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Church of Viri Galilaei belongs to the Greek Orthodox complex known as Little Galilee on the Mount of Olives. The patriarchal residence beside it hosted important encounters between Catholic and Orthodox leaders.
HISTORIC RELIGIOUS SITE
The surviving medieval shrine on the Mount of Olives commemorates Jesus’ Ascension. Built by the Crusaders, it later became part of an Islamic religious endowment.
CHURCH BUILDING
Consecrated in 1931 above remains of earlier churches, this sanctuary commemorates Peter’s denial of Jesus and his repentance. Tradition links the site to the high priest Caiaphas, but the location of his house is disputed.
CHURCH BUILDING
This Franciscan sanctuary in Ein Karem preserves a grotto venerated as John the Baptist’s birthplace. The devotion connects the village with Elizabeth and Zechariah, John’s parents.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Franciscans acquired this sanctuary in 1679; Antonio Barluzzi designed its twentieth-century rebuilding after archaeological excavations. It commemorates Mary visiting Elizabeth.
CHURCH BUILDING
Built between 1911 and 1914, Saint Joseph’s Church commemorates Mary’s husband and Jesus’ upbringing. Local tradition associates this site with Joseph’s home or workshop; this is a devotional identification.
CHURCH BUILDING
Antonio Barluzzi’s church was completed in 1938 on a hill above the Sea of Galilee. It commemorates the Sermon on the Mount in a landscape associated with that teaching by Christian tradition.
CHURCH BUILDING
Dedicated in 1982, the modern church follows the foundations of a Byzantine predecessor and protects its ancient mosaics. It commemorates Jesus feeding the multitude with bread and fish.
CHURCH BUILDING
Rebuilt in 1933 over earlier remains, this chapel commemorates the risen Jesus meeting his disciples beside the lake and entrusting Peter with care of his followers. The association with this precise spot belongs to Christian tradition.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Franciscan church was blessed in 1881 and enlarged in 1897–1905. It commemorates the wedding at Cana, where John recounts Jesus turning water into wine.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Greek Orthodox sanctuary at Kafr Kanna commemorates the wedding where John recounts Jesus turning water into wine. Its custodians also associate the site with Simon the Cananite.
CHURCH BUILDING
The modern memorial stands above remains of an ancient house and a later octagonal church. The house is traditionally identified with Peter’s home, where the Gospels recount Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law; the archaeological identification is not certain.
MONASTERY
The Greek Orthodox church was built in 1931 under Patriarch Damianos near the lake at ancient Capernaum. Later restoration and decoration renewed the sanctuary.
CHURCH BUILDING
Antonio Barluzzi’s basilica was completed in 1924. Christian tradition places the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor: Jesus appears in glory with Moses and Elijah.
MONASTERY
Opened in 1836, the present Carmelite church and monastery replaced earlier buildings damaged and destroyed during periods of conflict. The church overlooks the Mediterranean from Mount Carmel.
CHURCH BUILDING
Built in 1938–1939, Saint Elias became the Melkite cathedral after the community’s displacement during the 1948 war. The episcopal seat moved here from Haifa’s older church of the Virgin Mary.
CHURCH BUILDING
Built with Spanish support between 1888 and 1894, this Franciscan church overlooks Jaffa’s historic port. It commemorates Peter’s ministry in the city, including Tabitha’s raising and his vision described in Acts.
CHURCH BUILDING
Consecrated in 1894, this Russian Orthodox church grew within a property developed for pilgrims by Archimandrite Antonin. Nearby ancient tombs became associated by tradition with Tabitha, whom Acts says Peter raised in Joppa.
CHURCH BUILDING
This Armenian church is mentioned by pilgrims from the fourteenth century; its original construction date is unknown. An inscription records renovation in 1725.
MONASTERY
The Greek Orthodox monastery’s present church dates to the nineteenth century. It commemorates the Transfiguration, traditionally associated with Mount Tabor.
CHURCH BUILDING
Duc in Altum is the modern place of worship at Magdala, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, opened in 2014 beside the excavated remains of the ancient town. Its name comes from Luke 5:4, "Launch into the deep", and it is open to Christians of every tradition.
CHURCH BUILDING
Saint Peter's Church stands on the lake shore in Tiberias, the city Herod Antipas founded on the Sea of Galilee and named after the emperor Tiberius. It is dedicated to the moment the Gospel of John describes, when the risen Jesus tells Peter, "Tend my sheep." The building goes back to a church founded by the Crusaders in the early twelfth century.
CHURCH BUILDING
Nain lies about fourteen kilometres south of Nazareth, on the road to Mount Tabor and the northern slope of Jebel Dahi. It is remembered for the Gospel of Luke's account of Jesus raising a widow's only son to life, and the memory of the place is old: in the fourth century Eusebius of Caesarea wrote that Nain could still be seen twelve miles from Mount Tabor.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Church of Saint Anne stands near the Lions' Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, beside the Pools of Bethesda where the Gospel of John places the healing of a man ill for 38 years. A Byzantine basilica stood by the pools from the fifth century.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Church of Saint John the Baptist stands by the sea in Acre, close to the lighthouse. It should not be confused with the Franciscans' Terra Sancta church elsewhere in the city.
CHURCH BUILDING
The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George in Lod, ancient Lydda, keeps in its crypt a sarcophagus venerated as the tomb of the fourth-century martyr George. The site has held a church for some fifteen centuries.
CHURCH BUILDING
Built between 1906 and 1923 in a Gothic style, this Catholic church belongs to the Salesians of Don Bosco and stands beside their school on a hill overlooking Nazareth known as the Mount of the Start. Its dedication to Jesus as an adolescent reflects the Salesian focus on the education of the young, and points to the years the Gospels place in Nazareth between Jesus' childhood and his public ministry.
BIBLICAL SITE
Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee is the village the gospels make the base of Jesus’ Galilean ministry, and Matthew calls it “his own town”. The excavated site holds a white limestone synagogue of the fourth or fifth century, built over the black basalt foundations of an earlier one, and a cluster of basalt houses.
BIBLICAL SITE
Gethsemane lies at the foot of the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron valley from the Old City. The name comes from the Aramaic for an oil press, and the gospels place Jesus’ agony and arrest in a garden here on the night before the crucifixion.
BIBLICAL SITE
The Cenacle is an upper room on Mount Zion, venerated as the place of the Last Supper and of Pentecost. The room standing today is Crusader work of the twelfth century, rebuilt in the Gothic style; it was held by the Franciscans from the fourteenth century until they were expelled in the sixteenth, after which it served as a mosque, and the mihrab from that period is still in the south wall.
BIBLICAL SITE
Caesarea Maritima was built by Herod the Great between about 22 and 10 BC, with an artificial harbour raised on hydraulic concrete poured into the sea. In Acts it is the city where the centurion Cornelius was baptised, the first Gentile received into the church; where Philip the Evangelist settled; and where Paul was held for two years before being sent to Rome.
BIBLICAL SITE
Tel Megiddo is a settlement mound above the Jezreel Valley, occupied from the fourth millennium BC and commanding the pass on the road between Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is inscribed by UNESCO, with Hazor and Beer Sheba, as one of the Biblical Tels.
CHURCH BUILDING
Saint Stephen’s Basilica, also known as Saint-Étienne, stands just north of Jerusalem’s Old City walls, beside the convent that houses the French Biblical and Archaeological School. An old tradition places here the martyrdom of Stephen, the deacon whose death is told in Acts 7.
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