Austrian hospice for the Holy Family
The Austrian Pilgrims' Hospice for the Holy Family in Jerusalem is a pilgrimage hostel of the Catholic Church of Austria in the old city of Jerusalem . It is located on the corner of Via Dolorosa and El-Wad Street in the Arab quarter of the old town, at the 3rd station of the Cross . Markus Stefan Bugnyar has been the rector of the hospice since 2004 . Founded in 1856 and opened on March 19, 1863, the hospice is the oldest national pilgrim house in the Holy Land.
history
prehistory
The interest of the European powers at the Levante rose mid-19th century after an alliance of Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia the advance of the Egyptians under Mohammed Ali Pasha stopped and the Ottoman province Şam back under the control of the Sublime Porte in Istanbul brought would have. In response to the crisis in the Orient , Prussia , France , Great Britain , the Russian Tsarist Empire and the Austrian Empire began to establish the first consulates and national church institutions in the mid- 1840s .
Austria opened its vice consulate on May 1, 1849. In 1852, the Austrian vice consul Josef Graf Pizzamano proposed building a pilgrimage hospital with an associated church in order to consolidate Austria's influence as the protective power of Christians in the Middle East. The archbishop of Vienna at the time, Joseph Othmar von Rauscher , took up the idea of Pizzamanos and decided to build a pilgrims' hospice with a small infirmary for pilgrims from the regions of the monarchy .
Building history & foundation
At the beginning of 1854, the 3956 m² building plot on the corner of Via Dolorosa and El-Wad-Strasse in the old town of Jerusalem was acquired by Consul Pizzamano for 5,700 guilders in Austrian currency . The renowned architect Ermete Pierotti presented the first plans , but the final planning and execution was handed over to the architect Anton Endlicher . He traveled to Jerusalem with foremen Josef Wenz and Johann Wiltner in November 1855.
At the beginning of 1856, the time-consuming earthworks led to a cost explosion. Cardinal Rauscher was forced to cut back on the facade design of the house. The new construction plans have now been approved and construction could begin. The construction project was financed through the Good Friday collection and private donations. On December 31, 1856, the foundation stone of the Austrian Hospice was laid. Due to various complications, the foreman Josef Wenz replaced Anton Endlicher as construction manager.
October 20, 1858 is the date the keystone was laid. The chapel of the hospice was solemnly consecrated by the Latin Patriarch Giuseppe Valerga and the pilgrim guesthouse was opened on March 19, 1863.
Under the Habsburgs
The later curator Hermann Zschokke was appointed rector of the pilgrims' guest house in February 1864, and the first extensions and modernizations took place under him. In 1868 the house management asked for support in running the house and so in the same year two women from the monarchy arrived to work in Jerusalem.
November 1869 is one of the most important dates for the popularity of popular pilgrimages at the end of the 19th century. Emperor Franz Joseph I used his trip to the opening of the Suez Canal on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He was the first European monarch to visit the Holy Land since the end of the Crusader Empire . This visit was a symbolic model for the following generations of pilgrims from the monarchy.
In 1895, the curator of the house, Prelate Hermann Zschokke, campaigned for structural restructuring and modernization, as the character of the pilgrimages had fundamentally changed at the end of the 19th century. In order to include the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , the Hungarian Stephan Csarszky was appointed Vice Rector and the house was renamed the Austro-Hungarian Pilgrims' House to the Holy Family . Four sisters of the Congregation of St. Charles Borromeo, together with a Viennese gardener, arrived in the summer of 1896 and took over the management of the kitchen and laundry. In 1898 over 500 participants took part in the First Tyrolean People's Pilgrimage under Colonel a. D. Heinrich Himmel von Agisburg to the Holy Land.
The number of guest beds was increased to 100 and the terrace was laid out in 1902. In order to offer the sisters a place of retreat, the foundation stone for the sister house was laid in 1903 and the building was completed in 1904.
In 1908, in the 60th anniversary year of Emperor Franz Joseph's accession to the throne, the renovation of the chapel began. This expansion included the two side altars of the Teutonic Order, a mosaic of the most prominent saints of the crown lands in the dome of the apse, new confessionals and pews, and a new sacristy. This work continued until 1910. In 1913 the rector Franz Fellinger , who had already been in office from 1900 to 1906, became rector of the house again.
Hospice in the First World War
The Ottoman Empire entered the First World War on the side of the Four Alliance . In the course of the mobilization phase on September 9, 1914, the capitulations for the members of the Entente were dissolved and the ecclesiastical institutions of the now enemy nations were requisitioned .
When the Sultan proclaimed the jihad against the British in November 1914, all Entente nationals, including the clergy, had to leave Jerusalem. During this time, the city was in a gloomy and hostile mood. General Ulrich Back became city commander and the Austrian Hospice was becoming increasingly popular as a meeting place for German and Austro-Hungarian military.
The Ottoman troops did not succeed in pushing the British back in Egypt and in 1915 British units penetrated into the Sanjak of Jerusalem .
In order to avoid the risk of requisitioning, the hospice was officially converted into a rest home for officers and soldiers in February 1916. The mountain hood division "von Marno" , sent to support two batteries , entered Jerusalem in May 1916.
Since Jerusalem became an immediate combat zone in November 1917, the Austro-Hungarian consulate officials and the military evacuated the city; only Rector Fellinger and the sisters remained in the hospice to protect it from looting.
On December 11, 1917, General Edmund Allenby took over Jerusalem without a fight. The Austrian hospice was requisitioned by the British administration on February 16, 1918 and converted into an Anglican orphanage for Syrian-Christian children.
British mandate period
On August 29, 1919, the orphanage was closed and the building returned to the Board of Trustees on the same day. Rector Franz Fellinger immediately took over the management of the house again. After the inspection and subsequent compensation by the British administration, the cleaning, disinfection and repair work on the hospice began at the end of October.
In order to maintain the hospice during the post-war years, it was converted into a boarding house for British officers and administrators. With this income, the house was fully electrified in 1923. Many successor states of the Danube Monarchy claimed ownership of the hospice, but it remained in the possession of the Archdiocese of Vienna . However, the word “Austrian” was removed from the name in 1924 and the Czechoslovaks as well as the Hungarians and Slovenes received a seat on the board of trustees.
The board of trustees approved the plans for an urgently needed increase in January 1931. Gottlieb Bäuerle , who was born in Vienna, was employed as the master builder . Work began in the winter of 1932 and ended a year later. The attractiveness of the house has been increased by the new roof terrace.
In 1935 Franz Haider was appointed rector. In mid-April 1936 the Arab uprising broke out against the British mandate . The stream of visitors came to a standstill. On May 18, 1936, the Viennese servant Karl Breitlinger was shot backwards because he was mistaken for an insurgent. The conflict slowly subsided and in 1937 498 guests stayed in the hospice. After the Anschluss in 1938, the legal status of the Austrian Hospice was unclear. As a result, the pilgrims' house remained an independent ecclesiastical institution. The Third Reich immediately cast an eye on the hospice and its special position in the Middle East. They first tried to put pressure on the rector by freezing the salary payments. Withstanding the pressure from Berlin, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer stated that the Austrian Hospice was a purely ecclesiastical institution and could only be overwritten by a decision of the Board of Trustees, in which all dioceses of the former Habsburg Empire were represented, which was not possible for political reasons .
Immediately after Great Britain declared war in 1939, the hospice was confiscated by the British Mandate and Rector Franz Haider was interned for five days. His quick release was due to the intervention of Franz Fellinger. The house was converted into an internment camp for German and Italian clergy. Auxiliary Bishop Fellinger obtained permission for the five Vöcklabruck sisters to stay in the pilgrim house and run the household. Before Christmas, most of the 29 internees were released from the hospice and given restricted mobility. Internment remained in place only for Rector Haider and the Lazarist Father Leo Schmitt.
On March 8, 1940, Haider was transferred to an internment camp in Akko ; he handed over the management of the house to the sisters who remained in the house. Axis clergymen were interned again in May. The 80 internees, including 23 lay people, were transferred to a Franciscan monastery on June 28th to make room for 170 English women and children from Egypt .
The British refugees left the hospice as early as January 1941 and the sisters were given access to the house again. In order to investigate the possible damage, Franz Haider was brought to Jerusalem from the internment camp in Haifa, where he had been transferred in the meantime. Then the pilgrim house was converted into a camp for 150 religious sisters from the German Empire . The German director of the Schmidt School , Father Johannes Sonnen , acted as rector at this time .
In July 1943 the internment camp was closed and all sisters interned so far were allowed to return to their convents.
In May 1944, the British Army decided to set up an officers' school in the house, the teaching staff of which included the future Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban . The sisters continued to run the kitchen and household. Rector Franz Haider did not receive a return permit for the mandate of Palestine .
The officers' school was finally closed in September 1947 and converted into a British police station.
On January 6, 1948, the British withdrew from the old city of Jerusalem and the official return of the pilgrims' guest house to Father Sonnen took place on April 22, 1948, but the house was under the administration of the Red Cross, under whose supervision a military hospital was set up . On May 1, 1948, the first patients were transferred to the hospice.
Jordanian administration
During the Israeli War of Independence , the Austrian Hospice was used as a field hospital; on June 10, 1948, a grenade hit destroyed the balcony, killing a male nurse and four patients. The administration was at this time with the Red Cross and the Transjordan administration. The Austrian nuns actively helped with the nursing. After the armistice of April 3, 1949 between Transjordan and Israel , the hospice was in the part occupied by Transjordan .
In April 1950, East Jerusalem and the West Bank were incorporated into the Transjordan state. At the end of September, Franz Haider returned from his forced exile in Australia, where he worked as a pastor in Melbourne, to the hospice as rector and immediately began to start negotiations with the government in Amman.
The repair work began in 1951. On July 20 of the same year, King Abdallah of Jordan was the victim of a gunshot attack. He was sent to the Austrian hospice. Sister Liliosa Fasching excelled in providing emergency care, but the king succumbed to his injuries.
In 1953 a preliminary three-year lease agreement was signed between the Transjordan government and the Archdiocese of Vienna for the use of the hospice as a hospital.
The already very sickly rector Franz Haider returned to Vienna on March 15, 1954, the Vöcklabruck sisters remained true to their task and maintained Austrian influence. However, Franz Haider remained the official rector of the hospice.
The Palestinian-Christian administrator of the house, Antoine F. Albina, extended the contract with the Jordanian government in 1961, on behalf of Rector Franz Haider.
In 1966, when the government in Amman was willing to hold talks about the liquidation of the hospital in the Austrian hospice, Franz Sauer was appointed the new rector by the board of trustees.
The hope of return faded when the Six Day War broke out on June 5, 1967 and the hospice was converted into a war hospital again. The Israeli army captured the old city; the future of the pilgrims' hospice was again uncertain.
Return and reopening
It was hoped that it would be returned at the beginning of 1970, but the treatment of the pilgrim house, since it is part of the controversial part under international law, constituted a prejudice for both sides. If rent were to be charged from the Israelis, the annexed old town would be recognized as part of Israel. For the Catholic Church in Austria, this meant that the hospital had to continue to exist and that the rent had to be received from the Jordanian side. Although the house has not officially been a pilgrimage center for a long time, Rector Franz Sauer repeatedly organized pilgrimages and also took them to the hospice.
The Israeli Ministry of Health fired 24 hospital employees in 1980, against which the Arab population protested vehemently. There were demonstrations, strikes and media campaigns. The Arab administration wanted to develop the hospice into a modern hospital, but Rector Sauer made it clear to them that it could not continue as a hospital in the long term.
At Christmas 1984, Rector Franz Sauer suffered a fit of weakness, after which Manfred Kniewasser was placed at his side as Vice Rector.
Due to budget cuts by the Israeli Ministry of Health, the hospice was scheduled to close on July 31, 1985. In order not to risk any incidents, the Israeli executive decided to evacuate the hospital two days earlier. There was a general strike on the part of the Arab population.
In the meantime the hospice stood empty and was guarded by a private security service. In December 1985 the two lawyers Julius Schuster and Franz Eckert took over the sealed building for the board of trustees. On December 21st the first mass took place in the house chapel and towards the end of the month the first group of pilgrims arrived in the house.
The general renovation began in January 1987. Most of the builders and builders were Arabs. The entire house was modernized and the lavish frescoes in the salon were exposed and renovated.
In February 1988, most of the house was restored and on March 19, on the 125th anniversary of the inauguration of the hospice chapel, the house was ceremoniously opened. The newly appointed rector was Wolfgang Schwarz. In total, the employees of the hospice consisted of three sisters from the Congregatio Jesu , five Arab employees and some Austrian volunteers.
On January 7, 1991, the hotel was officially closed due to the start of the Iraq war . However, the situation eased a month later. Sister Glasauer returned to Austria and with the theologian Johann Krammer became a layman's assistant to the rector for the first time.
present
The years of the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005 brought heavy losses, the occupancy rate of the guest house was often below 20%. During these years, the Austrian dioceses doubled the collection results from the Palm Sunday collection in order to be able to keep “their house in the Orient” open.
In May 2004 the Burgenland diocesan priest Markus Stephan Bugnyár took over the role of rector of the hospice; By this time he had already studied biblical studies in Jerusalem for several semesters at the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem and thus qualified for this task in biblically founded pilgrimage pastoral care.
The Upper Austrian sister Bernadette Schwarz took over the housekeeping in 2008. She has been Vice Rector since September 2011 - the first woman in the history of the house. At the end of August 2019, she left office.
Since 2004, the house has undergone a profound change in structure and content in stages. In order to guarantee a continuous guest house operation, the individual measures are divided into individual projects. The construction of the Casa Austria was historically significant for the completion of the hospice: In April 2019, this new wing was opened in the north-eastern area of the property on Via Dolorosa , with which the pilgrims' hostel now attains the size it was intended for in 1863. The house currently has 45 rooms and 5 dormitories.
Since July 1, 2018, the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem officially bears the epithet 'Pilgrims' and is now called “Austrian Pilgrims Hospice for the Holy Family in Jerusalem” .
The Viennese coffee house has been gradually expanded and has been called “Café Triest” since 2019: in memory of the starting point of the first pilgrimages from the seaport of the former kuk city of Trieste . Since 2018, the house management has been dealing with the upcoming general renovation of the historical structure in the main building, which is expected to be completed in 2025.
As a decidedly Austrian institution, the pilgrims 'hospice still has the task of offering pilgrims' guests Central European hospitality at the holy places. As a cultural and educational institution, the "Austrian Hospice Academy" serves the intercultural encounter between Christianity , Judaism and Islam in the form of lectures, exhibitions, publications and concerts.
As a church institution, the hospice takes social responsibility seriously: by creating jobs and supporting needy children and young people in training and further education as well as young families. Particular attention is paid to the Catholic parish “To the Holy Family” in Gaza City , which was established in 1887 as a mission station by the South Tyrolean priest Vice-Rector Georg Gatt .
Since the beginning of the 1990s it has been possible to do alternative military service in the hospice , since January 1, 2016, in accordance with the new Volunteer Act.
List of hospice rectors
| Surname | origin | time |
|---|---|---|
| Eduard Kroell | Brno | 1863-1864 |
| Hermann Zschokke | Bohm. Leipa | 1864-1866 |
| Albert v. Hörmann | Bregenz | 1866-1867 |
| Anton Wecera | Moravia | 1867-1868 |
| Franz Horvath | Carniola | 1868-1870 |
| Stephan Rosenberger | Vienna | 1870-1871 |
| Ignaz Fischer | Königgrätz | 1871-1873 |
| Karl Schnabl | Vienna | 1873-1876 |
| Johann Fahrngruber | St. Polten | 1876-1879 |
| Fr Franz Josef Costa Major | Tyrol | 1879-1892 |
| Richard yoke | Moravian Weisskirchen | 1893-1895 |
| Franz Malecek | Prague | 1895-1897 |
| Stephan Csarszky | Gran | 1897-1902 |
| Franz Fellinger | Linz | 1902-1906 |
| Martin Ehrlich | Cucumber | 1906-1910 |
| Leopold Dangelmajer | Gran | 1910-1911 |
| Jakob André | Salzburg | 1911-1913 |
| Franz Fellinger | Linz | 1913-1935 |
| Franz Haider | Vienna | 1935-1954 |
| Ernst Bannert | Burgenland | 1964-1966 |
| Franz Sauer | Graz | 1966-1987 |
| Wolfgang Schwarz | Vienna | 1987-2004 |
| Markus St. Bugnyár | Burgenland | since 2004 |
literature
- Helmut Wohnout : History of the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . Norka, Klosterneuburg 1993.
- Markus Stefan Bugnyar and Helmut Wohnout (eds.): At home in the Orient. The Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . History & Art Publishing House, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-903076-00-6 .
- Helmut Wohnout: The Austrian hospice in Jerusalem. History of the pilgrim house on the Via Dolorosa . Böhlau , Vienna a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-205-99095-1 ( excerpts in the Google book search).
Individual evidence
- ^ Helmut Wohnout: The Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . 1st edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99095-1 , p. 25-48 .
- ^ Helmut Wohnout: The Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . 1st edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99095-1 , p. 25-48 .
- ↑ Barbara Haider-Wilson: "We are moving to the Holy Land" - On the development of pilgrimage in the Habsburg monarchy . Ed .: Markus St. Bugnyar; Helmut Wohnout. 1st edition. History & Art Publishing House, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-903076-00-6 , p. 124 .
- ^ Helmut Wohnout: The Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . 1st edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99095-1 , p. 49-104 .
- ^ Helmut Wohnout: The Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . 1st edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99095-1 , p. 105-122 .
- ^ Helmut Wohnout: The Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . 1st edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99095-1 , p. 123-151 .
- ^ Helmut Wohnout: The Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . 1st edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99095-1 , p. 152-160 .
- ^ Helmut Wohnout: The Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem . 1st edition. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99095-1 , p. 161-184 .
- ↑ Markus St. Bugnyar, Helmut Wohnout: At home in the Orient . Ed .: Markus St. Bugnyar, Helmut Wohnout. History & Art Publishing House, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-903076-00-6 , p. 287.317 .
- ↑ Markus St. Bugnyar: When the sun rose . Ed .: Markus St. Bugnyar. Be & Be, Heiligenkreuz im Wienerwald 2018, ISBN 978-3-903118-66-9 .
- ^ [Name change for Austrian hospice in Jerusalem https://www.erzdioezese-wien.at/site/home/nachrichten/article/66786.html ], press release of the Archdiocese of Vienna, July 6, 2018
- ↑ "Jerusalem's Old City is the only place where the two peoples constantly mix." Retrieved August 21, 2016 .
- ^ Foreign service ( memento of June 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on June 29, 2016
Web links
- www.austrianhospice.com
- Entry on Austrian hospice in Jerusalem in the Austria Forum (in the Heimatlexikon)
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Coordinates: 31 ° 46 ′ 49.1 ″ N , 35 ° 13 ′ 55 ″ E