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Click on areas on map with large red dots to view a virtual pilgrimage of the area. Bethlehem A few miles south of Jerusalem along a charming, biblical road, is the hilltop town of Bethlehem. The name Bethlehem has two meanings: in Hebrew, the House of Bread, and in Arabic, the House of Meat.
 On both sides of the road are vast, rocky pastures where shepherds tend their flocks of sheep and goats. One of these is aptly called the (Shepherds' Fields) because here the angels announced the birth of Jesus. It was also in these fields that the tender love story between Ruth and Boaz unfolded as narrated in the Book of Ruth. Their son, Obed, was to become the grandfather of King David, who was born in Bethlehem a thousand years before the birth of Jesus. For Christians, Bethlehem is a holy city because Jesus was born there. An those days, an edict of Augustus came out for the census of the entire empire. One of the principal functions of the Roman administration was to impose taxes. Therefore, the census ordered by Augustus, and supervised by the local governor Publius Sulpicius Quirinus, was certain to provide ready monies to the authorities. Since law decreed that every landowner had to declare his property for purposes of taxation, Joseph had to leave Nazareth and return to Bethlehem ... together with his bride, Mary, who was with child. While they were in that place, the moment of birth arrived and there she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them at the inn). This is how the Gospel of Luke describes the event destined to change the history of mankind. The actual birthdate of Jesus is disputed: for Roman Catholics it is December 25, for Greek Orthodox it is January 6 and for the Armenians, January 18. In contempt for the pilgrims who had venerated this place since the earliest times, Emperor Hadrian, in 135 A. D., consecrated the woods and caves here to Adonis and introduced his own pagan cult. In 332, Constantine the Great, after having the woods cut down, ordered the construction of a basilica on the spot. The present structure is a combination of Constantine's basilica (much of which was destroyed two centuries after its construction), Justin's sixth century renovations and later Crusader repairs. The basilica was miraculously spared during the Persian invasion of 614, because the invaders found a painting of the three Magi, whom they took to be Persians, decorating the pediment.
The Chapel of the Nativity
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In 101, Baldwin I was crowned Crusader king there, and twenty years later, Baldwin 11 and his wife were, as well. Then came a long decline. In 1646, the Turks melted down the lead from its roof to make cannonballs. About the same time, the Christian community decided to block up the main entrance except for a very small opening, to prevent the locals from riding into the church on horse Corinthian capitals line the double aisles on either side of the central nave. Above them, one sees the remnants of mosaics, done in 1169, which have a gold background and depict the ancestors of Jesus and the first seven ecumenical councils. Of these councils, only the first at Constantinopole has survived in its entirety, while fragments of the others, Nicaea, Ephesus and Chalcedon, can also be seen.
This is the small grotto located directly under the main altar of the church. In its small apse a silver star marks the place of Jesus' birth. 
