Old Restorations and New Discoveries in the Nativity Church, Bethlehem

Since 2010 the Nativity Church in Bethlehem underwent a number of significant restoration works, including the refurbishing of the wooden roof, the consolidation of the Armenian door, and, starting from March 2015, the cleaning and consolidation of the mosaic surfaces. This recent work lead to important discoveries, including the recovery of the figure of an angel which had been hidden under the plastering during the restoration made in 1842. The present article describes and comments on the newly discovered and cleaned portions of mosaics and describes the history of the alterations underwent by them and by their architectural setting since the Crusader period up to our days.