Muristan
The Muristan ( Arabic مورستان, DMG Mūristān , from Persian بیمارستان Bimārestān , 'hospital, madhouse'), which today includesthe property of theMartin Luther School, the Lutheran hospice and some shops inaddition to the GermanEvangelical Lutheran Church oftheRedeemer, is an area in the center ofJerusalem's old town.
It is bounded to the west by Christian Quarter Road, to the south by David Street, to the east by Suq el-Lahhamin and to the north by Suq ed-Dabbagha. Muristan Road divides the site into a western and an eastern area.
history
As early as 603, Pope Gregory I commissioned Abbot Probus from Ravenna to build a hospital in Jerusalem to look after the pilgrims. In 800, Charlemagne had this pilgrims' hospice expanded and a library added. He had previously received the site as a gift from the Caliph of Baghdad , the legendary Hārūn ar-Rashīd .
In 1005 the caliph al-Hākim bi-amr Allāh had the hospice destroyed along with numerous other Christian buildings. In 1023 it was rebuilt by Italian traders from Amalfi and Salerno on the site of the monastery of John the Baptist and was under the direction of the Benedictines , before Muristan passed into the possession of a merchant from Amalfi through another donation in 1064 . A pilgrims' hostel, which was first mentioned in 1048 and which had been donated by merchants from Amalfi long before the first crusade , has since been destroyed and has been rebuilt. In addition to the hospital, which was dedicated to either John the Baptist or John the Alms Giver , two Churches of Mary, one Church of St. John and two monasteries, whose tasks included caring for male and female sick pilgrims , were built. A little later, in 1099, the Hospitaller Order (also the Order of St. John) was founded here, which still exists today in the Catholic Order of Malta and the various Protestant Orders of St. John . A memorial stone erected at this point reminds of the location of the first Johanniter hospital. The order, which derives its name from the patron saint of the hospital, was expelled from Jerusalem when Saladin defeated the Crusaders in 1187 and the building was continued as an Islamic foundation . The sick were still cared for here until the 16th century, when the Muristan fell into disrepair and the buildings were almost completely destroyed. Around the middle of the 19th century there were ruins in many places, it was the only plot of land still to be built in the old city of Jerusalem. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate bought the part to the west of today's Muristan Road (previously: Kronprinz-Friedrich-Wilhelm-Strasse) to build bazaars .
In 1869 the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire , Abdülhamid II , donated the eastern part of the Muristan area to the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm as a gift to the King of Prussia, Wilhelm I. Here, on October 31, 1898, in the presence of the German imperial couple, the German became Protestant - Lutheran Church of the Redeemer consecrated.
The archaeological park "Through the Times", which opened in November 2012 and is located under the Church of the Redeemer, offers the opportunity to experience the history of Jerusalem and, in particular, of Muristan in real life.
Today the Muristan is owned by the Evangelical Jerusalem Foundation in Hanover .
Illustrations
Muristan and Church of the Redeemer
Visit of the German imperial couple , 1898
Muristan Fountain and Church of the Redeemer at night
Arabic souvenir shop in Muristan
Street sign of Muristan Street in the old city of Jerusalem
literature
- Grabe, Uwe (ed.): Leaflet of the German Evangelical Congregation in Jerusalem - On the history of the Church of the Redeemer. Jerusalem 2006.
- Moya Tönnies, Rüdiger Bartelmus and Tom Fleischer: Jerusalem / Medieval Muristan (map) on the website of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Web links
Coordinates: 31 ° 47 ' N , 35 ° 14' E