Basilica of the Annunciation - the most impressive architectural and artistic monument in the town, is of decidedly modern appearance,enhanced by the lofty dome. The present church, built over a Crypt enclosing the Grotto of the Virgin, was completed in 1969 after the design by the Italian architect Giovanni Muzio. Before that, at the same sacred spot, five churches had risen in succession, starting in the year 365. In 1955 the last one, a Franciscan church, was dismantled to make way for the present basilica. According to well substantiated tradition, the first church was built by Helen, mother of the Emperor Constantine. This was, in fact, the first place in Galilee where Christianity was practised. Still in the fourth century, the Byzantines raised a new building, which was replaced by the Crusaders (twelfth century) with another church with an aisled nave. Finally, in the first half of the seventeenth century, it was the turn of the Franciscans, the guardians of the Christian Holy Places who erected the church which survived until the midfifties of our century