As it does every year, Israel is preparing to welcome Christian pilgrims for Holy Week (April 13-19, 2025) and Easter (April 20, 2025).
But this year is special, as Catholic pilgrims from around the globe are marking the Jubilee Year that occurs every quarter century.
This sacred year, rooted in biblical and Catholic traditions, is a time to seek forgiveness of sins, cancellation of debts, and universal forgiveness for all believers. The Catholic Church has designated the Holy Land as a special destination for Jubilee pilgrimages.
The Jubilee Year 2025 was officially opened in Israel with an inaugural Mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth on December 29, 2024, presided over by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
In preparation for Jubilee pilgrims, the Israel Ministry of Tourism has been enhancing tourist infrastructure, offering specialist training for tour guides, planning events, and hosting key delegations from the Catholic Church.
The Way to Jerusalem pilgrimage initiative, a journey on foot from Jaffa Port in Tel Aviv to Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem, is scheduled for April 14 to 19. During the five-day trip, participants will receive hospitality en route.
If you’re coming to Israel for Easter, or any time, these 10 sites are a must. The list was compiled by ISRAEL21c with the assistance of Israeli tour guide Jacob Firsel, author of Go to Galilee: A Travel Guide for Christian Pilgrims.
10 Christian landmarks in Israel to visit
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre
- Garden tomb
- Garden of Gethsemane
- Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu
- Basilica of the Transfiguration
- Magdala Archeological Park
- The “Jesus Boat”
- Church of the Annunciation
- Church of the Primacy of St. Peter
- Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes
1. Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Revered by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian Orthodox and Armenian Catholics as the site of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection, this landmark in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem encompasses the last six of the 14 Stations of the Cross (Via Dolorosa).
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is open daily for free from 5am to dusk, with separate chapels for each denomination’s services. Click here for information.
If you’re celebrating Easter in Jerusalem, visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre offers a unique experience. The ancient church is the scene of a centuries-old Ceremony of the Holy Fire on Easter, when Orthodox patriarchs enter the church’s tomb and come out with candles believed to be lit miraculously. The flame is passed along to candles held by visitors.
2. Garden Tomb
The Garden Tomb, north of the Jerusalem Old City’s Damascus Gate near the American Colony Hotel, is believed by many Protestants to be the garden and sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathea, and therefore a possible site of the resurrection of Jesus. The Garden Tomb is owned and administered by a Christian non-denominational charitable trust based in the United Kingdom.
The Garden Tomb is open for tours and worship services Tuesdays to Saturdays from 9 to noon and 2-5pm for free. To book a visit, click here.
3. Garden of Gethsemane
According to the Gospels, Jesus prayed overnight with his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane until authorities arrested him early on Friday morning before the crucifixion, commemorated on Good Friday.
Gethsemane means “olive press” in Greek, and in Jesus’ time this was indeed an olive grove. Some very old olive trees are still alive in the garden and are harvested every October.
Floor-to ceiling mosaics in the 1920s Church of All Nations illustrate the events in Jesus’ life that took place at this site.
4. Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu, Mount Zion
According to Christian tradition, the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu also corresponds to the location of Caiaphas’ palace, where Jesus was tried prior to the crucifixion. The present church, inaugurated in 1931, was built on the site of an earlier church from the Byzantine period. A new church is built over a complex of ancient cisterns and storage rooms carved into the bedrock, and it is believed that this is where the house of Caiaphas the High Priest was located. Visitors can walk through these underground chambers.
5. Basilica of the Transfiguration, Mount Tabor
The Transfiguration of Jesus traditionally took place on Mount Tabor near Nazareth. Franciscan friars got permission from the local Druze emir to settle there in 1631, but it was not until 1858 that they could build a small chapel on the historic religious site.
On October 21, 1919, on the seventh centenary of the arrival of St Francis in the Holy Land, the first stone of the Basilica of the Transfiguration was laid. The building was completed in 1924.
This church boasts significant mosaics. At the center of the basilica, behind the altar, the main mosaic represents Jesus is seen with Moses and Elijah at his side and the disciples Peter, James and John, who are looking upwards.
In the first side chapel, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the mosaic shows two angels in adoration before the eye (God the Father). In the second side chapel is a mosaic of two angels in adoration before the dove (the Holy Spirit).
For more information and visiting hours, click here.
6. Magdala Archeological Park
Historians believe that Jesus taught in the first-century CE synagogue whose remains were discovered only in 2009 during excavations for a proposed Christian retreat in Magdala, the Galilee hometown of Jesus’ disciple Mary Magdalene.
The Magdala Archeological Park contains the Magdala Synagogue, unearthed in 2009. The oldest synagogue discovered in the Galilee, this site offers a rare glimpse into first-century Israel. Coins dating from 5 CE to 63 CE suggest the presence of Jesus teaching within its walls.
Remains of ancient villas, a marketplace, fishing industry and more can be found here. Perhaps the most significant find was the 2,000-year-old Magdala Stone, the earliest known artistic depiction of the Second Temple.
This Magadala stone is on display, along with other rare artifacts, at the Yigal Allon Center at Kibbutz Ginosar near the Sea of Galilee, which also houses the ancient “Jesus Boat” (see No. 7).
7. The “Jesus Boat”
Measuring 8 meters in length, this ancient wooden boat was discovered practically intact on the bottom of the Sea of Galilee in January 1986 by brothers Yuval and Moshe Lopen, members of Kibbutz Ginosar, not far from the Magdala shore.
After the boat was extracted from the mud by Israel Antiquities Authority archeologists and volunteers, scientists dated the find to some 2,000 years ago, in the exact place and time Jesus was active in the region. The boat’s body is made of 12 different types of wood, all mentioned in the Bible.
A huge double rainbow appeared in the sky at the moment the boat was revealed, as documented by witnesses. These photos are displayed in the gallery of the Yigal Allon Center where the boat has been on exhibit since 2000 following 14 years of treatment with novel preservation techniques. There’s also a film about the boat and its discovery.
8. Church of the Annunciation, Nazareth
The towering cupola of the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth stands over the cave that tradition holds to be the home of the Virgin Mary, where the Gospel of John says she was told by the angel Gabriel that she was to be the mother of Jesus.
One of the most beautiful churches in Israel, the massive two-story church became the largest in the Middle East when it was completed in 1969. This distinction of size was lost in 2019 with the completion of the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Egypt.
The complex actually contains two churches; the upper one is the parish church for Nazareth’s Catholic community, while the lower level enshrines a sunken grotto believed to have been Mary’s home.
On the cream limestone façade are reliefs of Mary, Gabriel and the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Above them is a bronze statue of Jesus.
9. Church of the Primacy of St. Peter
At the end of the Gospel of John, the risen Jesus appears at Tabgha (also spelled “Tabha”) on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee and performs the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes before commissioning Peter to lead the church.
The Church of the Primacy of Peter (open daily 8am-5pm) is a Franciscan chapel built in 1933 incorporating part of a fourth-century church and a large portion of the stone “table of Christ” where Jesus is believed to have served his disciples a fish breakfast after they landed on shore.
Six heart-shaped blocks known as the Twelve Thrones commemorate the Twelve Apostles, and an adjacent garden for group worship overlooks a modern statue of Jesus symbolically commissioning Peter with his shepherd’s crook. This is truly one of the most beautiful churches at the Sea of Galilee that you can visit.
10. Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes
After visiting the Church of the Primacy of St. Peter, walk on the Tabgha-Capernaum promenade to the nearby Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes.
This church stands on the site of a fourth-century church, displaying Byzantine mosaic decorations of
local flora and fauna including peacocks, cranes, cormorants, herons, doves, geese, ducks, a flamingo and a swan, as well as snakes, lotus flowers and oleanders.
The best-known mosaic, on the floor near the altar, refers to the miracle the church commemorates. It shows a basket of loaves flanked by two Galilee mullets.
Beneath the altar is the rock on which it is believed Jesus placed the loaves and fish when he blessed them.
More on Christian sites in Israel
