The Bethlehem Folklore Museum
"Baituna at Talhami"

Located in the heart of the Bethlehem old city, on Star Street, the street that the patriarchs still use to enter Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and other special religious occasions, "Baituna at Talhami" or "The Old Bethlehem Home" is one of the most famous cultural heritage museums in Palestine. Established by the Arab Women's Union in Bethlehem in 1971, the museum started modestly with a collection of traditional Palestinian household items displayed in an old house dedicated to the project where a living room and a kitchen were reconstructed. The museum was accompanied by a campaign amongst the Bethlehem families to donate their traditional belongings to the museum, and many items were thus saved from withering away in the backyards. In 1983, with the assistance of the French Consul General at the time, Mr. Jean Gueguinou, Mrs. Anne Saurat, a curator working at the time at restoring the Islamic museum in Al Aqsa Mosque, was asked to assist in classifying and organizing the collection. She also published a booklet about the objects and the photographs in the museum. In 1984, the museum was extended to an adjacent old house which had been restored. This new house, according to the president of the Arab Women's Union, Mrs. Julia Dabdoub, "is one of the few authentic old houses left in Bethlehem… similar to the house in which Jesus was born." She herself had in 1992 donated her forty year collection of photographs, furniture, and works of art to furnish the upper room or "Al Illiya" which shows the life of Bethlehem residents between 1900 - 1932.
The sections of the museum include: Traditional dresses and jewelry, dwelling rooms starting with the Diwan (sitting room), the kitchen, the bedroom, in addition to the ground floor "Al Rawya" where sheep and goats were kept. Adjacent to the museum is the Arab Women's Union embroidery center which displays traditional Palestinian embroidery items for sale.

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The Dormition Abbey

This white stone building is the traditional site of Mary's death, in a dark crypt decorated with twelve columns and with pictures of famous women from the Old Testament. Built in the style of the large Romanesque churches of the Rhein area, the present basilica stands on the ruins of a Byzantine church whose mosaic floor is kept under a glass cover in the courtyard. The corner stone was laid on the 7th of October 1900. This plot of land was granted to the German emperor Wilhem II by the Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid "for the benefit of German Catholics." Heinrich Renard, the architect for the Diocese of Cologne, was commissioned to draw up the plans for St. Mary's Church on the site where Christians had for centuries commemorated the death of Mary. It was entrusted to the German Benedictines in 1906. Renard succeeded in matching the neo-Romanesque architecture with the oriental environment. This is confirmed by the many bas-reliefs carved by local stone-masons on the out-side walls. In the circular apse, above the altar, shining mosaics represent Mary with the child Jesus. The words "I am the light of the world" are inscribed on the open book that Jesus is holding. Further down are pictured eight prophets who announced the coming of the Messiah, and the mosaics in the two niches below depict the Annunciation. The rotunda of the crypt recalls the Holy Sepulchre and the resurrection of Jesus.
In its center, surrounded by six pillars, lies the statue of Mary, asleep. This is where, according to ancient Christian tradition, Mary lived and died after her son's resurrection. The church is the home of the Benedictine monks who "wish to live the ideal of the primitive church in the spirit of the rule of St. Benedict." Classical music concerts and organ recitals are a regular event at the Abbey which also houses a cafeteria and a bookshop.
Down the hill from the church to the right is the Coenaculum - the Room of the Last Supper (open daily from 08:30 to sunset except for Friday afternoons.)
The room is a Crusader construction with characteristic Gothic arches. It was part of a Franciscan monastery until 1551 when it was turned into a mosque by the Ottomans. The roof reveals a fascinating juxtaposition of church steeples and minarets.
Directions: The church can be seen on the left hand side on top of the hill on the Jerusalem-Hebron road, across from the Sultan's pool. It can be reached through Zion Gate, or Dung Gate. Another alternative is to walk down from Jaffa gate heading south along the Hebron Road and left up the hill opposite the Sultan's Pool.
Open daily from 08:00 - noon and 14:00 - 18:00.

For more information contact:
The Dormition Abbey
Mt. Zion
P.O.Box 22
91000 Jerusalem
tel. +972 2 5655330