Church of the Transfiguration, Church building on Mount Tabor, Israel
The Church of the Transfiguration is a Franciscan basilica on Mount Tabor, completed in 1924 to Antonio Barluzzi's design. Its pale stone facade has two flat-topped towers with arched bell openings, a triple-arched recess and a pointed-arch door. Inside, two rows of Romanesque columns divide three naves under a pine-wood ceiling, and a gold-ground apse mosaic shows the Transfiguration.
The present church was designed by Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi and built between 1919 and 1924, replacing a 12th-century Crusader church and the ruins of a 4th–6th-century Byzantine church. Crusader-era remains, including three grottoes, were incorporated into the new building. The site had been a pilgrimage focus since the 4th century, and the Franciscans returned in the mid-17th century, raising a small chapel in the 18th.
The church stands at the summit of Mount Tabor, reached by road or on foot; the final stretch is steep. The interior is entered from the western facade, with the crypt and Grotto of Christ on the lower eastern level reached by Crusader steps. The two tower chapels, Elijah in the south and Moses in the north, sit above the entrance.
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