"Architecture in Bethlehem"

Interview with Prof. Qustandi Shomail

Prof. Qustandi Shomail is a professor at Bethlehem University who has a PhD in Comparative Literature from Sorbonne University in France.  He teaches a course on Cultural Heritage and tourism and a member in different associations and committees  working on cultural heritage preservation. Like the Scientific committee of Riwaya museum, Cultural Tourism in the Ministry of Tourism. He also represents Beit Sahour  Municipality in the Cultural Preservation plan. He also works with UNESCO as a consultant on cultural heritage.

Author of about twenty five books from them we mention: Tourism, Culture and Development written in Arabic and English, he is also the author of two books on Bethlehem: the Nativity in Bethlehem and Umbria.

http://qshomali.bethlehem.edu

Architecture in Bethlehem:

Bethlehem is the Christian Capital of the world, its history dates back to 3000 years B.C. Romans, Greeks, Persians, Arab Muslims and Crusaders were here. All of them left traces in Bethlehem, however most of the traces and building which they erected in Bethlehem were destroyed. What we have today in Bethlehem is Roman and Byzantine construction like the Church of Nativity. Some buildings are from the periods of the Crusaders and Ottoman.

Bethlehem was destroyed many times; mainly after the arrival of the Crusaders. During the Mamluk period, the walls of Bethlehem and many buildings were destroyed. So what we have now on the surface of the ground are traces from the Ottoman period. We have many other buildings under the ground from the Byzantine period, Crusaders period and some from the Roman period, and lots of excavations have to be done in order to uncover all these remains. An example of this is the Byzantine church which was discovered during the building of the Peace center, which dates back to the 14^th century.

If you walk in the old city of Bethlehem, you will find buildings from maximum the 17^th , 18^th and 19^th century, some buildings are from the 20^th century. Some were built by missionaries who came to the Holy Land in the Ottoman period, such as: the salesian convent, the Lutheran church, the frère school, Bethlehem University and the Carmelite monastery which dates back to the 19^th century – beginning of the 20^th century.  But in the old center many houses were built in the 18^th century in Arabic style, they used to be in the form of groups because Bethlehem is built upon a hill and surrounded by valleys. So the houses were built each one above the other and close to each other or what we call [Al Hosh] which is a typical Palestinian Arab house; in which we build houses with certain type of stones [ mizzi and nari]. Cement was not used nor was iron at that time, people began building with it after the British Mandate.  They only used stones with other materials [jeer and sheed] they mix it together and makes a sort of mud to be put between the stones. Each house was composed of 3-4 big rooms, and these rooms have an annex to another room which is a general service room. These are shared among all the different rooms [ al Hosh]. For example, if you have 3 couples each couple will live on a room, which has a gate that leads to the main street and in the middle of the house there will be shared rooms like the kitchen.

Since the 18^th and 19^th you will notice that the houses built have a cistern as Bethlehem suffers from a shortage of water since the Roman time as it is built on the edge of Jerusalem desert. We have two aqua decks in Bethlehem to bring water from Al Arqub [a nearby village] and the canals of Solomon pools from which people used to bring water to Jerusalem. Those canals gave life to Bethlehem for a certain period but they were later destroyed. That is why each house has a cistern in order to gather the rain water, and this water is used throughout the year.

In the 20^th century many new buildings were built, many people who worked in olive wood and mother of pearl managed to travel and work in European countries and Latin America returned here and built houses in a European style. An example of this is Jacer’s palace which is the Intercontinental hotel now,  and Hermass house which is now the faculty of nursing and education at Bethlehem university. Those houses were built with a rose stone collected from (slayeb region) in Beit Jala. This is a red stone that was cut and prepared by the craftsmen of the area. After 1914 Bethlehem witnessed the emergence of new houses which were different than the Arab style; this showed richness in the area.

From the old typical traditional Arabic design of houses of the 18^th and 19^th century we can still see some of them in Najajre street, Star street and Paul VI street. Those homes are built with a roof like an arc and the houses are composed of 3- 4 big rooms as described earlier.

A treasure to be preserved

All of these houses have to be preserved, we should preserve the architectural design and keep Bethlehem as a small town, which many tourists come to visit with Biblical images of the town as the place where Jesus Christ was born. These houses need to be rehabilitated and preserved, some houses were rehabilitated after the new millennium but more maintenance work ought to be done.

The Center of Cultural Heritage preservation works on how to preserve old building by distributing information on how to rehabilitate old buildings, make additions, treat humidity, and how to reuse these houses in the best way possible.

We currently face the invasion of new buildings in the old city, despite the restrictions; some people still don’t respect the law due to the absence of the rule of law. Many people managed to erect new buildings in the old city deforming its shape.

That’s why we should take care of the old architecture of Bethlehem, stop anyone who deforms its shape, spread awareness on its importance and preserve Bethlehem as it is a treasure that needs to be conserved.

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