Entering
The entrance of Nativity Church is out of scale with the importance of the interior. The main door of Justinian's church was much larger (you can still see the shape of the original arch above the door) but it was lowered by the Crusaders during the Middle Ages and further restricted during the Ottoman era to prevent mounted horsemen from entering the church. (Another story is that the door was installed by the Muslims during their rule to remind Christians that they were guests in the country and must bow to their hosts.)
Nave
The church is divided into five naves by four rows of Corinthian pillars. Traces of Crusader decoration are also visible on the pillars. The upper portions of these pillars are painted with images of various saints of the Western and Eastern churches (among those depicted are St. Sabas, St. Euthymius, St. Olav of Norway, St. Canute of Denmark and St. Cathal of Ireland). The names are written in Greek and Latin and many visitors have carved their own signatures over the centuries. The floor of the nave has a hole that allows you to see what remains of the Byzantine mosaics that covered the original church floor. Some bullet damage from the siege of the church in 2002 are evident on the 12th-century wall mosaics. The church altar is straight ahead. The Altar of the Nativity sits below a silver and gold chandelier. Stairways on either side of the main altar lead to the grotto.
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To the Right of the Grotto -- South
Transept
Beside the grotto steps is an area of the church for lighting candles, for giving donations to the poor, and for sitting and praying. There are many old painting and icons in this section.
The Grotto of the Nativity
The stairs on the right side of the altar lead down into the Grotto of the Nativity, supposedly the site of Jesus' birth; a 14-point silver star embedded in white marble marks the exact spot. The star was installed by the Catholics in 1717, removed by the Greeks in 1847 and replaced by the Turkish government in 1853, and bears the inscription, Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est -- Here Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary. Of the 15 lamps burning around the recess, six belong to the Greeks, five to the Armenians and four to the Roman Catholics. In another corner of the grotto, down three steps opposite the Altar of the Nativity is the Chapel of the Manger where Christ was laid. Facing this is the Altar of the Adoration of the Magi.
The Church of Saint Catherine
This
church, where Christ is said to have appeared to St. Catherine of Alexandria,
was built in 1881, incorporating remains of Crusader buildings discovered during
construction. A far lighter, airier space than the main basilica, it is from
here that Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve is televised and beamed worldwide.
The Chapel of the Innocents
From the church, medieval stairs lead down into a complex of caves and tombs linked to the Grotto of the Nativity. The main altar in this subterranean complex is devoted to Saint Joseph, the earthly father of Christ, and is said to be where he had the dream in which an angel warned him to flee to Egypt to safeguard the child Jesus from Herod's anger. Next to it, the Chapel of the Innocents commemorates the children who were slaughtered by Herod after the Holy Family had left (Matthew 3:16). Also off St. Joseph's chapel is the Tomb of Saint Jerome, a priest who arrived in Bethlehem from Rome in 386AD, and adjoining it is the room where he secluded himself to study the Bible and began a translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew to Latin, which was to become the official version of the Old Testament used by the Roman Catholic Church for the next 1500 years.
