Tourists arriving in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth yesterday were unable to visit the Basilica of the Annunciation, which marks the spot where the Angel Gabriel is said to have informed the Virgin Mary she was pregnant with a son.
The church gates were locked shut, and signs explained that the building was being kept closed yesterday and today in protest at a series of attacks on local Christians in recent days.
One of the most holy sites in Israel off-limits to pilgrims?
A city once renowned for the harmonious relations between its 42,000 Muslims and 18,000 Christians now seething with tension? It's hardly the atmosphere likely to attract the millions of visitors Israel hopes will pour in to mark the millennium.
The dispute in the town of Jesus' boyhood revolves around a half-acre area alongside the church - neutral territory until recent years because it was occupied by a school. But the school has gone now, and the town's Christian mayor, Mr Ramez Jeraisi, had been planning to build a "Venetian-style plaza" in its place - a perfect gathering point for the anticipated throngs of millennium visitors. Trouble is, Muslim leaders claim that the land is theirs, and they'd like to place a mosque on it.
The argument has bubbled steadily for more than a year, with intermittent signs of imminent Christian-Muslim violence defused through the last-minute intervention of religious notables - until this week. On Easter Sunday, clashes erupted in the centre: jeering turned to stone-throwing, there was fighting in the streets, a dozen people were injured, and windows were smashed on several Christian-owned cars.
On Monday, the Islamic Movement called for Mayor Jeraisi's resignation and declared a general strike - and Christian shopkeepers claimed they were warned by thuggish strike enforcers that their shops would be set alight if they didn't heed the call. The closure at the church, yesterday and today, marked the Christian response.
The status of the disputed plot is currently before the courts.
A government minister has suggested allocating part of the plot for a mosque, with the rest to be used for the plaza. An admirable compromise that might be. But the mood in Nazareth today is decidedly uncompromising.