JERUSALEM — Numerically, Israel’s Armenian Christian community is barely a blip on the radar of Israel’s population of nearly 10 million, but its rich history and artistic traditions have left their mark in Jerusalem, where most of the country’s nearly 3,000 Armenians live.
Although the community is famously insular — many of those who reside in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City live in a church compound behind high stone walls — the quarter’s recently reopened Edward and Helen Mardigian Armenian Museum attests to the community’s deep roots in the Holy Land.
In the year 301 — 12 years before Constantine’s Edict of Milan — Armenia became the first country to declare Christianity as its official religion. Soon afterward, pilgrims from the kingdom of Armenia arrived in Jerusalem, and over the 400 years that followed, Armenians built more than 70 monasteries and churches in the city.
The community swelled to 15,000 following the 1915-1916 Armenian genocide perpetrated by Muslims against Armenian Christians in the Ottoman Empire. But thousands fled what had been British Mandatory Palestine in 1948, after Israel declared independence and was attacked by neighboring Arab armies.
Originally a monastery and theological center for Armenian priests, in 1922, the large stone building was transformed into an orphanage for 600 Armenian children and teenagers who had survived the genocide. Today, the children’s etchings can still be found on a wall, and one room of the museum displays the names of every refugee child who once lived there.
“The children and grandchildren of those orphans come to the museum and are so happy to see a tangible record of their family,” Tzoghig Karakashian, the museum’s general manager, said during a private tour.
When the building was no longer needed as an orphanage, it was turned into a museum to house the many artifacts related to Armenian life.
Before its renovation in late 2022, the museum “was dark and old and strangely weird,” Karakashian said with a smile. Now revitalized, thanks to funding from the Edward and Helen Mardigian Foundation, she noted it is modern and bright; sunlight streams through the triangular glass roof, which was inspired by the Louvre.
Upon entering the museum, visitors encounter a gorgeous sixth-century mosaic floor depicting vines, many species of birds and the “Tree of Life,” a popular theme in Christian and Armenian art. It bears the inscription: “This mosaic is dedicated to the memory and salvation of all Armenians whose names God knows.”
A local Muslim family discovered the 13-foot-by-21-foot mosaic, a remnant of an ancient Armenian church, in 1894 while digging their future home’s foundation. Discovered under part of the mosaic were the 1,700-year-old skeletons of 300 Armenian soldiers and priests who died defending their Christian faith. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem purchased the land, ensuring the preservation of the mosaic and bones.
Sacrificial Faith
The soldiers’ remains — like the rest of the museum — are a somber reminder of the sacrifices Armenian Christians have endured due to their faith. When the mosaic was restored and relocated to the museum, priests of the Armenian Apostolic Church interred the soldiers’ remains beneath it.
The ground-floor rooms that surround the courtyard house collections of ancient decrees, illustrated books, church vessels, coins, pottery and copper objects, with explanations in English, Hebrew, French, Arabic or Armenian. The upper floor focuses on the genocide that killed 1.5 million Armenians.
Visitors with an interest in liturgical vessels will be moved by the intricately designed sacred objects, including crosses and miters, some inlaid with precious stones, used by generations of Armenian priests in the Divine Liturgy. The manuscript room contains exquisitely illustrated religious texts, some with artistic renderings not only of Jesus and Mary but the rulers who commissioned the work.
One of the museum’s more surprising artifacts is a robe sewn out of Napoleon Bonaparte’s tent. In 1799, after the French general’s army was defeated in what is today northern Israel, the Armenian community treated the wounded French soldiers. A grateful Napoleon wanted to show his appreciation, so when the priests requested a piece of his field tent, he readily offered it.
Another surprise is an Armenian-owned printing press from 1833 — the first printing press ever used in Jerusalem — along with the metal type it used to print everything from posters to pamphlets. Armenians were also the first to introduce photography to the city.
Anyone familiar with Jerusalem’s handcrafted Armenian pottery will be gratified to see the museum’s collection, which combines examples of 100-year-old pottery with more modern pieces. The first Armenian ceramicists were invited to Mandatory Palestine by the British a century ago to replace some 40,000 tiles at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Although the Al-Aqsa project was ultimately given to Muslims, the Armenians stayed in Jerusalem and opened the first Armenian pottery studio. Today, a handful of Armenian potters continue to sell their decorative tiles, vases and bowls in shops in the Old City.
Impacted by War
Unfortunately, due to the war that has ensued since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, there are few tourists. This has negatively affected the museum.
“On Oct. 7, 150 visitors, Jews and Arabs from Israel, were scheduled to visit,” Karakashian said. “When they hadn’t arrived by 11 a.m., we knew they had canceled.”
That morning, Hamas launched hundreds of rockets toward Israel. The museum, which closed its doors for all except private groups from that day forward, reopened July 2 and now has regular visiting hours — though this could change if the war intensifies.
Despite the many generations that Armenian Christians have been in Jerusalem, they live with the constant knowledge that their well-being and future relies on others.
The exclusive control by Muslims over the Holy Land’s sacred Christian sites, afforded by a decree by Saladin following his 1187 conquest against the Crusaders (the museum has a replica of the decree), has been superseded over the subsequent centuries by other decrees, rulers and wars. Today, the state of Israel rules the territory, and Christians of all denominations have a stake in holy sites.
Despite the many challenges the Armenian Christian community continues to face, Karakashian says the museum “gives me perspective and the hope for better days to come.”
