Augusta Victoria.html



The Augusta Victoria church

Augusta Victoria is a 161-bed hospital on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, financed by the Lutheran World Federation and the United Nations Refugee Works Administration. ¹

History

Augusta Victoria was built in 1907 as a center for the German Protestant community in Ottoman Palestine. The complex, completed in 1910, included the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Ascension with a 65-meter belltower and a hospice for Christian pilgrims. During World War II, it was converted into a hospital by the British. ²

The complex was named for Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein, wife of German Kaiser Wilhelm II, who visited Jerusalem in 1898. The architect, Robert Leibnitz, was inspired by German palaces, such as the German Hohenzollern. ³

After the Kaiser's visit, he commissioned the construction of a guesthouse for German pilgrims. Many of the building materials were imported from Germany. A 50-meter high church tower was constructed with four bells, the largest of them weighing six tons. To transport these bells from Jaffa, the road to Jerusalem had to be widened and paved. The expense was more than double the cost of transporting the bells from Hamburg to Jaffa. Augusta Victoria was the first building in the country to have electricity (provided by a diesel generator). ⁴

From 1920 to 1927, Augusta Victoria was the official residence of the British High Commissioner of the Palestine Mandate before British headquarters moved to Armon Hanatziv, on the outskirts of Talpiot. Under Jordanian administration, technically under UN control, it was a military hospital for soldiers from the Arab Legion⁵. In 1927, a severe earthquake caused extensive damage to the premises.⁶

Today

Augusta Victoria courtyard

Augusta Victoria is now the second-largest hospital in East Jerusalem. ⁷It also operates a guesthouse run by the Lutheran World Federation for international volunteers and guests. ⁸ A pediatric oncology ward for Palestinian children opened in April 2005 in a joint project with the Peres Center for Peace, various Italian foundations and the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem, which trained the oncologist and nursing staff. ⁹

References

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Augusta Victoria

Coordinates: 31°47′12″N 35°14′57″E / 31.78667, 35.24917