Tiberias, one of the holiest cities in Judaism, is a spiritual Jewish center. In the areas surrounding it and the Sea of Galilee there are also many sites sacred to Christianity. The trip in the area is a special spiritual experience, which takes the visitors along historical paths.

 

The Mount of Beatitudes is the place to which Jesus fled and where he preached the sermons that captured the hearts of his first believers who were poor and hard-working fishermen.

In the famous sermon on the mount  – “Ashri”, after which the place is named (originating to the Hebrew word “Osher”), Jesus addressed his followers about the main principles of the Christian dicipline. According to Christian tradition, Beatitudes is also where Jesus named his the 12 apostles.

At the top of the mountain stands a 19^th century church with an elongated window overlooking the landscapes of the Sea of Galilee. In 2000, the Pope visited Israel and delivered a sermon on the Mount of Beatitudes to his believers who came from all over the world to hear him.

 

The Church of the Primacy of Saint Peter in Tabgha – Saint Peter was one of Jesus’s 12 apostles, one of two fishermen brothers Jesus met at the lake.

The church commemorates Jesus’s 3^rd appearance to the Apostles  – the Petrine Primacy, when he nominates Peter with primacy as head of his church.

Tabgha is also home to the modern Church of Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish, standing in the courtyard of the ancient Byzantine churches from the 4^th and 5^th centuries.

This church commemorates the miracle of the loaves fish, performed by Jesus in this place, when he fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Restored mosaics from the 5^th century are found in it, of them a mosaic of the miracle, showing two fish flanking a basket with four loaves of bread.

 

Capernaum – an ancient settlement in the northern coast of the Sea of Galilee, and nowadays a national park with springs, ancient synagogue, remains of Jewish settlement and churches that are among the most important ones in the Christian world.

According to the New Testament, after leaving Nazareth Jesus established Capernaum as the center of his activity, where he spent his time teaching and healing. Capernaum was also the hometown of 4 of 12 of his apostles – Peter and his brother Andrew, James and John. One of the oldest houses remained on-site is identified as Peter’s house.

Capernaum is also home to the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Apostles dedicated to the 12 Apostles of Jesus. It is a beautiful church with white walls and red domes, decorated inside with magnificent paintings telling the story of Christianity.

Every year, at Christmas, a ceremony is held in the church, attracting thousands of Christian pilgrims from all over the country and the world. Thousands of believers drop a statue in the image of Jesus into the Sea of Galilee and whoever jumps into the water and saves the statue is guaranteed with blessings, luck, health and longevity.