A Few Facts about the Armenian Quarter and surrounding area

There is so much about the Armenian Quarter many of us know so little about. Like most of you, I am not from Jerusalem and thought by providing a few facts which strike me as fascinating, might be of interest to you. I recently found this information in a book on Jerusalem architecture published in fall, 2008.

In St. James Cathedral, there is a forest of gold and silver lanterns suspending from the ceiling—one of the most famous images depicting the Armenian Quarter. What I did not know is that most of these (200+) lamps were donated by Armenian villages which no longer exist as they have been hanging in the cathedral prior to the 15th century.

In 1918, David Ohanessian came to Jerusalem from Syria specifically to redo the interior tiles at the Dome of the Rock. Originally from the Kutahaya region of Anatolia, an area well known for their ceramics, Ohanesian was considered one of the best ceramists. Even though 1918 Jerusalem was newly under British Mandate, the Turkish Sultan in Jerusalem would not hear of an Armenian working on the Dome of the Rock. No decision was made until 1924. It was then decided a Turkish company would redo the tiles. Still, Ohanessian stayed in Jerusalem and thus the famous Armenian Ceramics of Jerusalem commenced.

My favorite story has to do with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox own different areas within this church. Throughout history, each denomination has been territorial over their areas. In 1852, a status quo was created by the Sultan to try and absolve this tension. The status quo stated that each group would maintain control of their existing areas—nothing more and nothing less. Now, the Armenians own a window on the second floor of the church. They used the outside ledge of the window to grow vegetables, but to get down to the ledge, they had to use a ladder. The ladder was outside the window when the status quo went into effect. To this day, there is a ladder outside this window and whenever it becomes tattered; an exact replica is made to replace it!