Shrine of the Book

overall view

Partial view with another wing of the Israel Museum

The Shrine of the Book (also known by the English name Shrine of the Book, Hebrew היכל הספר Hechal HaSefer) is a building in the western part of Jerusalem in the immediate vicinity of the Knesset , the Israeli parliament. The building belongs to the Israel Museum , the Israeli National Museum. What is remarkable about this building is the tent-like roof, which is made of concrete with white ceramic tiles and covers several floors in the interior, some of which are underground. In it are originals and facsimiles of ancient scrolls of the Tanakh kept, especially the Book of Isaiah - hence the name Shrine of the Book. The exhibition also contains other finds from Qumran at the Dead Sea . The architects were Friedrich Kiesler and Armand Bartos . The planning and construction phase lasted from 1950 to 1960.

The Shrine of the Book is a popular destination and is marketed accordingly. It is considered the main attraction of the Israel Museum and was opened along with the rest of the museum in 1965 by the then Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek . From 1962 to 1965, before the official opening of the Israel Museum, the building was renovated for the first time, the second time in 2003. The reopening after the renovation was carried out in 2004 by the then incumbent President Moshe Katzav .

History, name and meaning

Teddy Kollek and the first directors of the museum, Willem Sandberg (chairman of the board) and Karl Katz , worked closely together in the initial planning phase from 1957 to 1959. Because of the importance of the finds from the Dead Sea, it was decided to build a separate building instead of furnishing an interior in the Israel Museum.

In 1959 the planned building was given a name for the first time, at that time House of the Book. From whom the proposal came can no longer be determined today. However, Kiesler, the main architect of the shrine, later invented the term “ shrine of the book” to refer to the religious aspect of the Isaiah scroll and to clearly differentiate it from the house in the sense of a residential building . In architecture, a shrine denotes something sacred, religious. Since the non-biblical exhibits were added later, this name was used.

The current directors of the museum, James Snyder and Anne and Jerome Fisher, refer to the archaeological finds contained in the shrine, mainly the Dead Sea Scrolls, as the museum's greatest treasures and the building itself as an architectural pearl of the last century. According to press information from the Israel Museum, the shrine contains the most important treasures of the State of Israel. The Israel Museum and above all the Shrine of the Book are considered tourist attractions and are often visited on tours. The shrine has a similar meaning to the rock of Massada .

architecture

Overview of the facility, on the right the main building (drawing by Roland Lelke)

The architects

Architects were Friedrich Kiesler (Austria and USA) and Armand Bartos (USA). When planning, they placed value on the interplay of symbolic form and structural construction, which is typical for Kiesler, as he has created works such as Das Endlose Haus (The Endless House, 1958) or Die Welthausgalerie (1957), which he also used Form and work style were inspiration. The shrine is considered Kiesler's main work; it is the only major project he has completed and the last project before his death in 1965. Bartos is often seen as Kiesler's “junior partner”, and indeed there was a kind of mentor-student relationship between the two. Bartos was part of the project team for the renovation until 1994 and was present at the reopening in 2004.

The plant and the building

Entrance to the interior

The Shrine of the Book encompasses the entire complex with the outer courtyard, basalt wall and the round building that contains the Isaiah scroll; this building represents the shrine in the strict sense. Its shape is modeled on the lid of the earthenware containers with the scrolls that were found in the caves of Qumran. The dome is circular, the vaulting does not have a classic dome shape, it resembles an onion dome , which lacks two curves at the top and bottom.

A black basalt wall rises across from the white dome . White and black are supposed to symbolize the struggle between good and evil - the victory of Scripture over the unbelief of mankind.

The museum building has been sprayed with water from the outside using nozzles since 2003, on the one hand to cool it in addition to the air conditioning, on the other hand to increase the temperature difference to the basalt wall next to it, which is heated by the sun. The cool white concrete dome symbolizes the good of the Sons of Light, the basalt wall the fiery evil of the Sons of Darkness. The battle of good versus evil is also a common theme in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The water nozzles appear in the work plan from October 1965, so it must be assumed that Kiesler had planned them back then. There is a system of fountains around the shrine, into which the water drains and from which it is pumped back into the nozzles. A square marble wall runs around the fountain . The entrance area to the interior is not located in this marble square, but was set one floor lower behind the basalt wall and is accessible via stairs. There is therefore only an underground access to the main building.

The dimensions

The dome has a diameter of 25 meters at the foot and a diameter of 5.20 m in the opaum (i.e. at the open top of the dome, from Greek: ὀπαῖον (opaion) = smoke hole). The square with the fountain has a side length of 31.44 m, the entire system extends in its widest extent over almost exactly 100 meters.

The top of the dome rises 10 meters from the ground and 15 meters to the underground base. The height from the base to the top of the model of the Isaiah scroll is again 10 meters. 10 meters is a dimension that is often found in construction.

The measurements were not released by the Israel Museum for safety reasons, which is why Roland Lelke, author of the book The Endless Room in Frederick Kiesler's Shrine of the book , measured it on site. The information is therefore subject to a certain margin of error , but is relatively accurate.

inside rooms

The Qumran Caves

Visitors get through the somewhat remote entrance into an underground part of the exhibition, which protects the manuscripts located there with its darkened lighting and gives a cave-like impression, also to draw attention to the origin of the finds, the Qumran caves.

This is where the precious Dead Sea scrolls and other exhibits that are owned by the State of Israel are kept.

The Isaiah scroll

In the center of the interior there is a vertical cylinder in the form of an upright scroll on which a replica of the famous Isaiah scroll (7.35 m long) is attached. The original of this scroll, the oldest complete manuscript of a book in the Bible , was found almost entirely preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls . Originally the original was stretched on the cylinder; Over the decades, however, it has been damaged by exposure to light and humidity as a result of the visitors' breath and is therefore now safely stored under armored glass in the museum's cellar. Only a part of the original can be seen in a side showcase. The Isaiah scroll is the heart of the shrine and namesake for the building: In ancient times, the content of a scroll was referred to as a "book", here the biblical book Isaiah , hence the shrine of the book.

The central cylinder with the Isaiah scroll is constantly rotating. There used to be a practical reason for this: the original was so fragile that it could not be exposed to light for a long time. It would have disintegrated over time and the movement prevented that process. When the original had to be replaced by the facsimile, the curators discussed whether to stop the rotation for cost reasons. Since this had become a trademark of the museum, it was kept.

There is a strict ban on photography inside the shrine due to the damage that flashlights can cause to the finds. Therefore only a few recordings of the Isaiah scroll exist. Outside the building, however, you can take photos.

Other treasures from Qumran

The Isaiah scroll around are in circular recessed into the walls showcases more valuable manuscripts from the caves of Qumran , as the other first six found Dead Sea Scrolls: Small Isaiah scroll , of Discipline , Hymn Scroll , the War Scroll , the Habakkuk Pescher and Genesis Apocryphon , and also the Codex of Aleppo .

Finally, on the lower floors of the Shrine of the Book, there are other exhibits from Qumran, including clay jugs and tools from the Essenes , a Jewish sect in Jesus ' day who collected the scrolls in Qumran.

Renovations

From 1962 to 1965, before the actual opening, the Shrine of the Book was renovated for the first time . In the course of the work, the white ceramic plates were also placed on the concrete roof in order to protect the visitors from the heat by means of an increased albedo . In 2003 the museum was completely renovated for the second time at great financial expense on the basis of the most modern conservational findings, as the scrolls had been damaged over the years. Innovations were also made on the outside, such as the water jets and new ceramic plates, as the old ones had been badly attacked by the weather over the past four decades.

The renovation cost about three million US dollars , the amount was donated by the American donors Herta and Paul Amir, Los Angeles, and the D. S. and R. H. Gottesman Foundation, New York.

Further information

Model of the shrine with basalt wall in the Mini-Israel exhibition

Two thirds of the museum are above the surface of the earth, one third below.

As one of Israel's main tourist attractions, the Shrine of the Book can also be admired as a model in the exhibition Mini-Israel near Jerusalem, which shows Israeli sights on a smaller scale.

Because of its unique architecture, the dome has already been used as a motif for Israeli productions of science fiction films.

literature

Roland Lelke: The endless space in Frederick Kiesler's shrine of the book, Shaker , Aachen 1999, ISBN 3-8265-4806-X (= reports from architecture, plus dissertation at the TU Aachen 1998).