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The Holy Land in a week · Stop 15 · Day 5
St Gabriel's Church and Mary's Well
In the Bible
The angel Gabriel came to Mary in Nazareth and greeted her: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Luke 1:26–28
In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”Tradition
By an Orthodox tradition that goes back to an early apocryphal account, the angel first greeted Mary as she drew water at this spring; Mary's Well in the square below is fed by it.
Here today
A Greek Orthodox church of the 18th century; steps lead down to a vaulted crypt where the spring still runs.
Through the eyes of old pilgrims
This “Fountain of the Virgin” is the one which tradition says Mary used to get water from, twenty times a day, when she was a girl, and bear it away in a jar upon her head. The water streams through faucets in the face of a wall of ancient masonry which stands removed from the houses of the village.Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1869
And we went out of that town and walked a little to the northeast, and found a wonderful well, deep and very cold; one goes down a long way by steps to its water. And over that well a church is built in the name of the Archangel Gabriel, and it is round in shape.Abbot Daniel, 1106–1108 · our translation
Before you travel, check your country’s travel advice. Opening hours and the rules of the sites change — see their official pages.
Land outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).