Church of the Visitation
This church, be
autifully located on the slopes of a rocky hill and shaded by
cypresses, is also known as the Church of the Magnificat, in commemoration of
the answer Mary gave her cousin Elisabeth in the Gospel episode of the
Visitation. Her hymn to the glory of the Lord is inscribed in forty-one
languages on one wall of the church. The present basilica is a Franciscan church
designed by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi and built between 2938 and
1955. The Franciscan Order had acquired the land as early as the second half of
the seventeenth century. The construction work revealed the remains of earlier,
more ancient sacred buildings; in particular, vestiges of a church of the
Byzantine era and of a similar building raised by the Crusaders in the twelfth
century were found. In front of the Church of the Visitation, which is entered
through an artistic wrought-iron gate, is a low portico topped by a graceful
bell tower.
This building also consists of two parts. In the so-called Upper Church religious services are held, while in the Crypt is to be found a cave in which a miraculous spring broke forth at the exact moment when Elisabeth welcomed the Virgin. Among other curiosities, it is worth mentioning a stone against one wall which bears the imprint of a young boy’s body. Traditionally, it is believed that this imprint was left by the infant John, when Elisabeth hid him from Herod’s soldiers at the time of the slaughter of the Innocents.
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