Basilica of the Annunciation

The Church of the Annunciation (Latin: Basilica Annuntiationis, Kanīsat al-Bišāra), sometimes also referred to as the Basilica of the Annunciation, is a Catholic church in Nazareth, in northern Israel. It is one of two claimants to the site of the Annunciation – in which angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and announced that she would give birth to Jesus – the other being the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation. It was established over what Catholic tradition holds to be the site of the house of the Virgin Mary.

The church was established at the site where, according to one tradition, the Annunciation took place. Another tradition, based on the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, holds that this event commenced while Mary was drawing water from a local spring in Nazareth, and the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation was erected at that alternate site.

Christian tradition has held that a structure was commissioned by Emperor Constantine I, whose mother, Saint Helena, helped to found churches commemorating important events in Jesus Christ's life. The Church of the Annunciation was founded around the same time as the Church of the Nativity (the birthplace) and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the tomb). Some version of it was known to have still been in existence around 570. A competing view is that the Church was the site of the Holy House, which, according to Catholic legend, was transported by angels across the sea to Loreto, Italy, at the time of the Muslim conquest.

The second church was built over the ruins of the Byzantine-era church during the Crusades, following the conquest of Nazareth by Tancred in 1102. The church was undergoing a considerable expansion under Letard II, archbishop of Nazareth, in the 1170s. The expansion was never completed. Five Romanesque capitals, discovered during excavations in 1909, had not yet been installed in 1187 when news of Saladin's victory in the Battle of Hattin reached the city. Saladin granted permission to Franciscan priests to remain in Nazareth to oversee service

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