Birth place of Jesus

The hotel that we are staying at is just down the hill from the Church of the Nativity. Like the Holy Sepulcher, there is consensus between all the Christian denominations on location for the site of the birth of Jesus. The first church was built by St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine. The Church was not destroyed by the Persians, who destroyed most of the churches in Jerusalem in 614 C.E., because of the mosaic depicting the Magi from Persia.




The original church by St. Helena was repaired by Emperor Justinian. Justinian reused some of the columns and raised the floor. After Justinian, the Crusaders also conducted repairs.





The door is much smaller than the original door. If you look closely, you can see the original arch doorway.




The nave of the church. There is a cave underneath the main altar that holds the cave where Jesus was born. I did not take a picture of the holy site.




The original mosaic floor from the church built by St. Helena.




The chapel adjacent to the Nativity Church is the Chapel of St. Catherine of Alexandria. It is inside this church we have the entrance to the cave of St. Jerome, who translated the bible to the vulgate. St. Jerome is buried in the cave.





To the left is an altar. In front is the tomb of St. Jerome. The wood carving is an image of St. Jerome.

Location:Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine