Sara Gomez Arms |
Jerusalem (EFE).- The Tower of David Museum, in the Old City of Jerusalem, reopens its doors to the public after ten years of planning and three of construction to turn the ancient citadel into the main museum of the city, an interactive tour for 4,000 years of history of a city that was for centuries the center of the world for Jews, Christians and Muslims, in permanent coexistence and conflict.
The entire project, valued at 50 million dollars, has been carried out entirely by official institutions and Israeli foundations -such as the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Ministry of Jerusalem Affairs, the city mayor’s office or the Clore Israel Foundation- although the museum is located in East Jerusalem, half of the city destined to be the capital of the Palestinians that Israel occupied in 1967 and unilaterally annexed in 1980.
“The Tower of David citadel is the gateway to the Old City of Jerusalem. And now it is the only place in the world that tells the entire story of the city, from the beginning 4,000 years ago. We want the visitor to know everything about history, archeology and culture, to involve them through technology, animations, 3-D, in addition to showing archaeological evidence of the past”, the director and main curator of the Torre de David Museum explained to EFE, Eilat Lieber.
20,000 square meters of exhibition
To this end, the exhibition area of the museum – inaugurated in 1989 – has been doubled to 20,000 square meters, through ten completely new thematic galleries that explain the vital importance of the city for the three main monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, recreating models of the Second Jewish Temple, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher or the Dome of the Rock Mosque.
In addition, the museum has designed an interactive multimedia wall of 12 meters, which chronologically covers the entire history of the holy city, from the Canaanites to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948; it explains the main historical milestones and also compares them with other events that occurred in other parts of the world.
Upon entering, the visitor comes across a three-minute animated projection in which the renowned Israeli filmmaker Ari Foldman -creator of the animated films “Where is Anne Frank” (2021) or “Waltz with Bashir” (2008)- summarizes the history of Jerusalem, an appetizer for everything that comes after.
“The challenge was to make the story interesting. We historians know that history is fascinating, but the challenge was to make it so for others. That is why we called on the best artists in Israel to create a beautiful exhibition with multiple formats,” Lieber clarified.
The immersive experience -with 360 video installations, a sphere and 14 interactive maps or digital models- is completed with objects of immense historical value, such as archaeological remains found in the same space in the citadel of the Tower of David, some of which are 1,500 years old. old and exhibited for the first time; or the walls of the enclosure, subjected to intense conservation work, as well as the minaret from the Muslim era.
model of 1873
Among the most important pieces in the renovated museum is a model of the city made by Stefan Illés, commissioned by the Ottomans who ruled at the time, for the Universal Exhibition in Vienna in 1873, which is one of the most accurate and reliable recreations of the city. never made.
Due to the ups and downs of the turbulent history in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, the trace of the model was lost, which was found years later, thanks to the efforts of a group of archaeologists from the Hebrew University, kept in a Calvinist institution in Geneva, Switzerland. .
“We want the visitor to be active, to be able to touch the screens, play, feel the story and discover all the content. In the end, it is about discovering Jerusalem, because this museum was conceived to tell the history of Jerusalem”, indicated the director of the museum, where the story is told from its own walls, the oldest dating back 3,000 years and the newest of the fifteenth century.
The citadel of the Tower of David was almost always the fortress that defended the city and its rulers resided there for thousands of years. There Hezekiah’s soldiers built a first wall, the Hasmoneans fired crossbows, Herod erected a magnificent palace, the crusaders dug tunnels, and the Mamluks built the famous minaret.
All this, in “the most beautiful place in the city”, as Ronald Storrs, the first British governor of Jerusalem, described it in 1917.