The modern church was built on the foundations of the church from the Byzantine period and the remains of buildings from the Crusader period. The Byzantine church was destroyed during the Persian invasion in 614 AD and was partially restored at the end of Byzantine rule in the Holy Land. German King Frederick II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, built a large fortress on the ruins of the Byzantine church, which was destroyed by the Muslims and rebuilt during the Seventh Crusade by French King Louis IX. The fort, church and monastery were ruined in 1264 AD by the Mamluks. But one of the semi-circular towers was preserved and used to construct the modern church by the Franciscan monks in 1654.
Let us walk from the sizeable southern parking through the port, the streets of the upper city, the house of Ilana Gur, the workshop of Meisler, the soaring orange, Abrashi Park, the square of all the signs of the Zodiac, the Cathedral of St. Peter, to the port and back to the parking,
