House of Virgin Mary

It is known with certainty that the Virgin Mary went to Ephesus and lived there for some time. Whether or not she died in Ephesus was not known until Anne Catherine Emmerich’s vision. The stigmatized German nun who had never been to Ephesus had a vision of the House of the Virgin Mary and described it in detail to the German writer Clemens Brentano who later published a book about it. Catherine Emmerich died in 1884. In 1891 Paul, Superior of the Lazarists from Izmir read about her vision and found a little building which corresponded with Emmerich’s descriptions. Archeological evidence showed that the little house was from the 6C AD but that the foundations were from the 1C AD.

This place was officially declared a shrine of the Roman Catholic Church in 1896, and since then it has become a popular place of pilgrimage. Pope Paul VI visited the shrine in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

Major Attractions
Ephesus Ancient City
House of Virgin Mary
St. John Church
Temple of Artemis
Ephesus Archaeological Museum
Sirince Village
Terrace Houses
Our Tours
Best of Ephesus Tour
Ephesus & Shopping Tour
Biblical Ephesus Tour
Jewish Ephesus Tour
Archaeological Ephesus
Ephesus and Village Life
Tailor Made Ephesus
Best of Istanbul Tour
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