House of the Virgin Mary

Southeast of Bülbül Dagi, on Ala Dagi (the ancient Mount Solmissos, 420m/1,378ft), is a building known as the House of the Virgin Mary (Panaya Kapula), in which the Virgin is said to have lived and died. The building, the foundations of which date from the first century A.D., was restored in Byzantine times but thereafter was abandoned and fell into disrepair. Its association with the Virgin only dates from the 19th century following the visions of a German nun, Katharina Emmerich (1774-1824), who gave a precise description of the situation and appearance of a house at Ephesus in which she claimed the Virgin had lived and died. In 1891, on the basis of her account, Lazarists from Smyrna (Izmir) discovered on the south side of Bülbül Dagi