The Church of the Visitation honors the visit paid by the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. (Luke 1:39–56). This is the site where tradition tells us that Mary recited her song of praise, the Magnificat. The courtyard contains a statue of Mary and Elizabeth, and on the wall opposite the entrance to the lower church are forty two ceramic tablets bearing the verses of the Magnificat in as many different languages. On the facade of the upper church is a striking mosaic commemorating the Visitation. The Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land purchased the plot of land with the ruined Crusader complex in 1679 and began reconstruction of the lower level of the church in 1862. Design and construction of the upper level of the structure began in 1938 and was completed by Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi in 1955.
The convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Zion, Notre Dam De Sion, is located on the western hill of Ein Kerem. High walls surround the complex, which is operated by nuns since 1861. A large garden surrounds the monastery buildings and includes a small cemetery where Father Marie Alphonse Ratisbonne is buried. Once an ancient village of the Jerusalem District, a Palestinian Arab town in the Mandatory Palestine's Jerusalem subdistrict, and currently a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, Christian tradition places Zekariyah the priest and his wife, the Virgin Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, in Ein Kerem, and declares this the birthplace of John the Baptist.
