In March 1697 , when Henry Maundrell visited Jacob 's Well , the depth of the water in the well measured . Edward Robinson visited the site in the mid-19th century , describing the " remains of the ancient church , " lying just above the well to the southwest as a " shapeless mass of ruins , among which are seen fragments of gray , granite columns , still retaining their ancient polish . " Local Christians continued to venerate the site even when it was without a church . In 1860 , the site was obtained by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and a new church , consecrated to St. Photini the Samaritan , was built in 1893 along with a small monastery . The 1927 Jericho earthquake destroyed that building . Since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank , Jacob 's Well has been a site of contention between Christians and Jews . In November 1979 , at a time of increased tensions on the West Bank , the custodian of the well , Archimandrite Philoumenos , was found hatcheted to death inside the crypt housing the well . The assailant , a mentally ill resident of Tel Aviv , was apprehended three years later and confessed to that slaying and others . including an assault on a nun at the monastery and the axe murder of a Jewish psychiatrist in Tel Aviv . In 2009 , the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem declared Philoumenos a saint thirty years after his death . Abuna ( meaning " Father " ) Ioustinos , a well-respected Greek Orthodox priest in Nablus , later spearheaded a huge reconstruction project . Jacob 's Well has since been restored and a new church modelled along the designs of the Crusader-era church houses the well inside it , in a crypt on a lower level
1927 Jericho earthquake
1927 Jericho earthquake
Jacob's Well