Nazareth grew around a single spring, and Mary's Well is where its water surfaced for public use. For generations this was the town's daily meeting point, the place where households drew what they needed and where news travelled; old photographs of Nazareth almost invariably show the fountain and the queue around it. The water comes from the spring enclosed beneath the Greek Orthodox church of Saint Gabriel, a short distance uphill, which gives the fountain its religious significance: the Eastern tradition places a first announcement to Mary at the spring, so that a piece of ordinary town infrastructure carries a Gospel memory. The film uses the well as a way into Nazareth itself — the largest Arab city in the country, with a Christian and Muslim population, a busy market, steep streets and a skyline of basilicas and minarets. Around the fountain, the modern square, the traffic and the shops make the point that the holy sites of Galilee are not isolated monuments but pieces of living, working towns.
