Home UpEuropeans in 19th Century Jerusalem

19th century Jerusalem attracted huge numbers of Europeans, most of whom only visited briefly but many of whom stayed for years. Some wound up staying for the ages.

The biggest structure atop the Mount of Olives is the Augusta Victoria Hospital, finished in 1907. It commemorated the visit to Jerusalem of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Augusta Victoria, his wife. The hospital has had many functions, including housing the local headquarters of both the German and British forces in World War I. The attached church has this well-made bell tower, with a staircase and elevator leading to a fine view.

In the quiet courtyard of the busy hospital, the kaiser stands pretty much ignored but in full Crusader regalia, which he actually wore on his arrival in the city.

Next to him, the kaiserin.

In the mosaiced apse of the church, an obedient Wilhelm wonders where on earth she's going to put her latest garage-sale coup.

Just outside the southwest corner of the Old City, there's a walled and locked Protestant cemetery. Many of the stones mark the graves of members of the Palestine police, killed during the 20-odd years of the British Mandate. Other stones mark the graves of European residents in Jerusalem. The Baldenspergers, for example, were important in the resettlement of Artas, the West Bank village shown in another file.

Conrad Schick was a major figure in the study of Jerusalem's architecture and archaeology, as well as the importer to Palestine of 19th century European building ideas.

An inscription whose heavy rhetoric is echoed in Victorian cemeteries across the British Empire.

This wasn't on the itinerary from Cook's. Wait, wait! There's been a terrible mistake.