House of the Virgin Mary

The House of the Virgin Mary is a Catholic shrine located on Mt. Koressos (Turkish: Bülbüldağı) in Ephesus, Turkey. The house is believed to have been the last home of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The house has merited several papal Apostolic Blessings and visits from Pope Paul VI in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1979, and Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. The house is a two-story structure that contained an anteroom, a bedroom and praying room, and a room with a fireplace. A front kitchen fell into ruins and has been restored in the 1940s. Today, only the central part and a room on the right of the altar are open to visitors. From there one can understand that this building looks more like a church than a house. Another interesting place is the “Water of Mary”, a source to be found at the exit of the church area and where a rather salt water, with curative properties, can be drunk by all. The main focus of Muslim visitors arriving from all parts of Turkey today is the so-called Quran Room, supposedly the place where Mary spent her last days.