The Church of Saint Gabriel in NazarethMary’s Well * The Church of Saint Gabriel in Nazareth is the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation. According to Greek Orthodox tradition, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to Mary as she was going to draw water from a spring here. The first church on the site was built by the Crusaders above the spring in the early twelfth century, and destroyed in 1263. The present church, which was built in 1750, incorporates the remains of the Crusader church's crypt. In the crypt is Mary's Well, next to which Mary stood during the Annunciation.