Nazareth

If you're going to build the largest church in the Middle East on the site of a previous church that was on the site of another previous church on the site where Mary was told by God she was gonna have his son, you have a pretty big bill to follow. My suggestion to future builders is to take a look at the current architectural trends and ask yourself "Is this a good thing? Will this last eternally, like Roman arches and Byzantine ceilings? Or is this 1969 and an era of avocado green appliances and shag carpeting?"

Too bad. It was 1969 and they wanted "modern".

The result is a concrete church with polka-dotted columns and angles that disrupt, not inspire.

To add to it, the walls are adorned by gifts from dozens of foreign countries and their own depiction of the Virgin Mary, including this "gift" from America.

To tie in a bit of history, they have created sculptured bronze doors, but the Duomo this is not.


While there are worse places to visit, I would not think the Basilica of the Annunciation will ever go down as one of the worlds, or Israel's, great monuments. But in another two thousand years....who knows.