The church was established at the site where, according to one tradition, the Annunciation took place. Another tradition, based on the apocryphalProtoevangelium 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.
Late Roman/Byzantine shrine
The first shrine was probably built sometime in the middle of the 4th century, comprising an altar in the cave in which Mary had lived. Christian tradition has held that a larger 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 and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Some version of it was known to have still been in existence around 570 AD, but it was destroyed in the 7th century after the Muslim conquest of Palestine.
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 Crusader era church was never fully completed. Five Romanesquecapitals carved by artists from northern France, and discovered during excavations in 1909, had not yet been installed in 1187 when news of Saladin's victory in the Battle of Hittin reached the city. Saladin granted permission to Franciscan priests to remain in Nazareth to oversee services at the church. In 1260, Baybars and his Mamluk army destroyed the church during their attack on Nazareth.
A small number of Franciscans managed to stay in Nazareth until the fall of Acre in 1291. In the three centuries that followed, the Franciscans were in and out of Nazareth, depending on the local political situation, which was constantly in flux. Franciscan accounts of this period document their expulsion in 1363, their return in 1468 and a massacre of some of their members in 1542. Local Christian families with Franciscan support took care of the holy site even during this difficult period.
17th- and 18th-century churches
granted the Franciscans permission to return to Nazareth and the church ruins in 1620, at which time they constructed a small structure to enclose the holy grotto that is venerated as the house of Mary. In 1730, Dahir al-Umar permitted construction of a new church, which became a central gathering place for Nazareth Latin community. The church was enlarged in 1877.
20th-century basilica
The old church was completely demolished in 1954 to allow for the construction of a new basilica, which was completed in 1969, after being dedicated in 1964 by Pope Paul VI. The new basilica was designed by the Italian architectGiovanni Muzio, and built by the Israeli building firm Solel Boneh during the years 1960–1969. The Chief Engineer at this project was Ing. Shlomo Lopatin who was dedicated to the Basilica building process for more than 10 years, and it was indeed his life-project. It is built in a style sometimes characterised as Italian Brutalism. Used by the Latin parish, it remains under the control of the Franciscans. It is the largest Christian sanctuary in the Middle East.
The current Catholic Church is a two-storey building finished in 1969 over the site of earlier churches from the Byzantine, Crusader, and Ottoman-period churches.
Lower church
The lower level contains the Grotto of the Annunciation, believed by many Christians to be the remains of the original childhood home of Mary.
Upper church
The upper level contains a number of images of Mary, mainly mosaics, each from a different country with significant Catholic population.
As of November 2018, Catholic Masses are given in the Grotto, Upper Basilica, and adjacent St. Joseph's Church in the Arabic and Italian languages, according to the main church sign in English.
