Church of Beatitudes

Abstract

~Opposite to the Church of the Primacy of Peter, on a mountainside, walls of the ancient Byzantine Church of Beatitudes (called also Church of the Sermon of the Mount) are found. The church, discovered by the Franciscans in 1935, was built in the late 4th century AD and was restored in the early 7th century AD. It contained a small chapel and annexed structures. The small church had an eastern apse, and its walls were carved from the basalt rock. Inscriptions and mosaics were found there. In its latter days it was utilized by the Muslims for secular purposes. On the mountain pick overlooking the Tabgha area, a new Church of the Beatitudes was built in 1938, designed by the renowned architect Antonio Barluzzi. It has an octagonal floor plan and a large copper-plated dome. The drum of the church's dome has eight opaque glass windows decorated with verses from Jesus' Sermon of the Mount