This church, beautifully located on the slopes of a rocky hill and shaded by cypresses, is also known as the Church of the Magnificat (Mary's song in Luke 1:46-55), in commemoration of the answer Mary gave her cousin Elizabeth in the Gospel episode of the Visitation. Her hymn to the glory of the Lord is inscribed in 41 languages on one wall of the church. The present basilica is a Franciscan church designed by the Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi and built between 1938 and 1955. The Franciscan Order had acquired the land as early as the second half of the 17th century. The construction work revealed the remains of earlier, more ancient sacred buildings; in particular, vestiges of a church of the Byzantine era and of a similar building raised by the Crusaders in the 12th century were found. In front of the Church of the Visitation, which is entered through an artistic wrought-iron gate, is a low portico topped by a graceful bell tower. This building consists of two parts. In the so-called Upper Church religious services are held, while in the Crypt is to be found a cave in which a miraculous spring broke forth at the exact moment when Elizabeth welcomed the Virgin. Among other curiosities, it is worth mentioning a stone against one wall, which bears the imprint of a young boy's body. Traditionally, it is believed that the infant John left this imprint, when Elizabeth hid him from Herod's soldiers at the time of the slaughter of the Innocents.