Since the Byzantine period (1,500 years ago) many churches have been built in Ein Kerem. Today there a few active churches and also a few monasteries. Two of the churches are named after John the Baptist, one Catholic and the other Greek Orthodox. Both were built in the late 19th century on the ruins of previous churches. The Catholic church has an ancient mosaic floor and a grotto thought to be the birthplace of John the Baptist.
The Church of the Visitation was built in 1955, on the foundations of a Crusader church built in the traditional location of the summer home where John the Baptist’s parents lived when Mary visited Elizabeth. The church is built around a large stone behind which Elizabeth hid John the Baptist from Herod’s soldiers, who were ordered to kill all children under the age of two.
The Sisters of Zion Convent, also in Ein Kerem, was built as an orphanage. Today it is home to 13 nuns who run a modest hostel. The nearby Gorny Monastery, also known as the Moscovia (because it resembles churches in Moscow) is reached via a steep, winding path. This Russian-Orthodox church was built in the late 19th century and now houses a church (dedicated to Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father) and a convent (to Elizabeth). There is also a “palace in the mountains,” built by a protestant bishop in the mid-19th century.