Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

About Lutheran Church of the Redeemer

Church building in Jerusalem

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer is the second Protestant church in Al-Quds, after Christ Church near Jaffa Gate, and stands in the Muristan area of the Christian Quarter in the Old City. It was built between 1893 and 1898 to designs by Friedrich Adler, executed by the architect Paul Ferdinand Groth, on land that the Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid had given to King William I of Prussia in 1869, on the site of the old church of St Mary Minor. Kaiser Wilhelm II came to the city in person in 1898 to dedicate it. Today the church is the seat of the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, an Arabic-speaking Palestinian church independent since 1979, and services are held in Arabic, German, Danish and English. What draws most visitors is the bell tower: 177 steps lead up to a gallery with a sweeping view over the roofs and domes of the Old City, from the Dome of the Rock to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Beneath the church are archaeological excavations and a small museum showing the layers of the city. Its position in the heart of the Muristan makes it a natural stop between the Holy Sepulchre, the Aftimos market and the Church of St John the Baptist.

Where:

Jerusalem, Palestine