140 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP. A tradition prevails, that StJoachm and the 
<, ,. ,,/ Mother of the Virgin Mary resided in this place: 
st!joachim accordingly, some pious agent of Constantine the 
&i St. Anne. Y\\:^t erectcd over the spot where the monks 
fancied their house had stood, or, what is more 
likely, over what they vouched for being the 
house itself, a most magnificent church. The 
remains of this sanctuary were what we had 
been invited to see ; and these now bear the 
name of the house here mentioned. The visit 
was, however, attended by circumstances which 
may possibly interest the Reader more than the 
cause of it will induce him to imagine. 
Gothic Re- We wcrc couductcd to the ruins of a stately 
Gothic edifice, which seems to have been one of 
the finest structures in the Holy Land. Here 
we entered, beneath lofty massive arches of 
stone. The roof of the building was of the 
same materials. The arches are placed at the 
intersection of a GreeJc cross, and originally 
supported a dome or a tower : their appearance 
is highly picturesque, and they exhibit the 
grandeur of a noble style of architecture. 
Broken columns of granite and marble lie scat- 
tered among the walls, and these prove how 
richly it was decorated. We measured the 
capital of a pillar of the order commonly called 
Tuscan, which we found lying against a pillar 
mains. 
