Russian Compound
[3] A Turkish cavalry parade ground during Ottoman rule, and originally known as “New Jerusalem” (Nuva Yerushama), the "Russian Compound" is a historical area abounding in heritage, scenery and unique environmental features.
The compound's construction from 1860 to 1864 was initiated by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society to serve the large volume of Russian pilgrims to the Holy City.
Designed by Russian architect Martin Ivanovich Eppinger [de], it included a mission (so-called Dukhovnia), consulate, hospital, and hostels.
The Israeli Administrator General Haim Kadmon purchased the Russian Compound in the 1960s, save for the Church of the Holy Trinity and the Sergei Courtyard.
Its purpose was to offer Russian pilgrims spiritual supervision, provide assistance, and sponsor charitable and educational work among the Orthodox Arab population of Palestine and Syria.
Between 1860 and 1864 the Marianskaya Women's Hospice was built on the northeast, and the Russian consulate on the southeast side; to the southwest was a hospital, and in a separate building the residence of the Russian Orthodox religious mission with apartments for the archimandrite, the priests and well-to-do pilgrims; to the northwest stood the large Elizabeth Men's Hospice with altogether 2,000 beds.
The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, based in St. Petersburg, was the initiator and backer of the huge undertaking, and Russian architect Martin Ivanovich Eppinger was responsible for its design, influenced by Byzantine architecture.
[citation needed] In 1889 the Sergej Imperial Hospice was completed by the Jerusalem-based George Franghia,[6][7][8] head engineer of the province at the time,[9] an additional accommodation with 25 luxuriously furnished rooms for "rich and honourable guests", on a 9 acres (36,000 m2) plot of land to the northeast of and adjacent to the actual compound.
The women's hospice was converted into the central prison of Jerusalem in response to the Jewish underground, comprising groups like the Haganah, the Palmach, the Lehi, and the Irgun intensifying their activities, which led to many of their members being jailed.
After the end of the Second World War, during Cunningham's tenure as High Commissioner, the British army began constructing 'security zones' in the three large cities.
In 1947, two condemned Jews, Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani, blew themselves up in the night before their execution with a hand grenade which had been smuggled into the cell inside of an orange.
Immediately after the last British soldiers had left Jerusalem in 1948, underground fighters of the Irgun took over the vacant Generali building on the corner of Jaffa and Shlomzion Hamalka streets.
After raising the national flag above the statue of the winged lion on the roof of the building, they turned towards the Russian Compound, where the British intelligence (CID) was.
Today, the neglected but architecturally striking enclave serves as an Israeli lock-up; at visiting times, families of prisoners can often be seen huddling outside the police barricades.
In 2006, an international architects competition was declared open for design of the future campus which is expected to promote interaction between the students and the surrounding heart of urban life on the line separating east from west in Jerusalem, bringing a student and bohemian population to the city center, and constituting an unusual challenge for designers.
[3] In 2023 the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design relocated most of its 3,000+ faculty and students to a brand new, 460,000 sq ft SANAA-designed building adjacent to the compound.
The surface of its interior main hall, dome, and two aisles is painted celestial blue with salmon accents and include numerous depictions of saints.
[citation needed] Completed in 1889 by architect George Franghia,[7] it was built for pilgrims from the Russian nobility as "Sergej Imperial Hospice".
[citation needed] It occupied 9 acres (36,000 m2) of land, and was made entirely out of hewn stone, its 25 luxuriously furnished rooms intended as lodgings for aristocrats.
[citation needed] Jacob Valero and Company, a local bank founded by a prominent Sephardi Jewish family, financed the construction of the Sergei Building.
The Southern Gate, between the mission and the hospital on Safra Square, was built in 1890 as part of the perimeter wall of the Russian Compound.
It was moved from its original location about 50 metres (160 ft) south of where it now stands as part of the Safra Square Project and the new City hall.
13 Safra Square The Russian Consulate, on Shivtei Yisraʾel Street behind the municipality complex, was erected in stages beginning in 1860, and combines European characteristics with local building techniques.
Above the Neoclassical entrance is an inscription marking it as "Elisbeth Courtyard" and the emblem of the Imperial Russian Orthodox Palestine Society.
While the facility housed many death-row inmates captured from Jewish underground organizations, Jews sentenced to death were sent to Acre prison for the actual executions.
Prisoners from the Jewish underground organizations were often put to work making coffins and gravestones for the very same British policemen and soldiers they had killed.
In front of the police headquarters on Shneor Cheshin Street is a colossal monolithic column dating either from the Second Temple or the Byzantine period.
The column was presumably destined either for the colonnades of the Herodian Temple or - as a number of capitals found here suggest - for a building of the Theodosian period (second half of the 4th century).
