According to the Bible, when Jesus was crucified, he asked Saint John the Evangelist to take care of his mother.So John brought Mary to Ephesus in A.D. 37, where she spent the rest of her life, in a modest stone house.The house of the Holy Virgin Mary, is at the top of Mount Coresus (Panaya Kapulu) 8 km. from the center of Ephesus in a place now known as Maryemana Kultur Parki.The house was officially declared a Roman Catholic Church in 1896 and has since become a pilgrimage site for Christians and Muslims, as well as pilgrims from various other cults.

Pope Paul VI visited the site in 1967, Pope John Paul II in 1979, and Pope Benedicto XVI in 2006.