The Dura-Europos church in Eastern Syria is the earliest identified Christian house church and one of the earliest known Christian churches. It was apparently a normal domestic house converted for worship some time between 233 and 256, when the town was abandoned after conquest by the Persians.
The surviving frescoes of the room serving as the baptistry include the "Good Shepherd," the "Healing of the paralytic" and "Christ and Peter walking on the water," considered the earliest depictions of Jesus. An
image heretofore considered a depiction of the Samaritan woman who speaks to Jesus by the well is now thought to be the oldest image of the Blessed Mother.