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Description

This is the famous, medieval church of St Anne in Jerusalem. Constructed in the mid. 12th C., it is one of the best preserved examples of crusader architecture left from the kingdom of Jerusalem and as such it is often used in reconstructions depicting crusader cities in the Levant. What is particularly interesting about it, is that the church was constructed to serve a community of religious women. The Benedictine nunnery of St Anne was one of the wealthier and most enduring institutions in the Latin East. It received significant royal patronage from the first king of Jerusalem – Baldwin I who forced his Armenian wife, Arda, to join this nunnery (although she later escaped and fled to Constantinople). Another Latin princes who was a nun here, was Iveta, the youngest daughter of king Baldwin II and sister o queen Melisende. The nunnery owned numerous properties, including at least one village close to the Mediterranean cost and a few shops in the city of Jerusalem, some of them survive and are in use to this day – they even still bear medieval, Latin inscriptions marking them as property of St Anne! The nuns of St Anne, were sufficiently wealthy that, when Jerusalem was lost to the Muslims, the nunnery was not abolished but rather relocated to Acre and continued to function there until 1291 when Acre as well was also was conquered by Islamic armies. The sisters of St Anne, however, survived even this calamity and fled to Cyprus where a church constructed for them still survives in Famagusta. The preservation of both these churches, the one in Jerusalem and the one in Famagusta is quite remarkable, given the scale of destruction of Frankish monuments in the East, and serves as a reflection of the endurance of the female community that lived by their walls.

PS. Even though it is well preserved, it is worth noting the church of St Anne was damaged though time and was heavily restored in the 19th C. Its current appearance therefore, is probably a bit different from the way it looked in the crusader period. To list just a few examples, originally the church had Romanesque cloisters attached to its southern side which are not preserved to this day, also there was an round window, an oculus, in the center of the façade and most likely the original church would have had a timber pitched roof above it. Also, the current bell tower dates from the 19th C. – the original bell tower had a small dome above it similar to the one preserved in Ballamand (www.deviantart.com/bricksandst… ). Other than that, however, it is still a very well preserved, crusader period structure (the dome is original!).

Description

This is the famous, medieval church of St Anne in Jerusalem. Constructed in the mid. 12th C., it is one of the best preserved examples of crusader architecture left from the kingdom of Jerusalem and as such it is often used in reconstructions depicting crusader cities in the Levant. What is particularly interesting about it, is that the church was constructed to serve a community of religious women. The Benedictine nunnery of St Anne was one of the wealthier and most enduring institutions in the Latin East. It received significant royal patronage from the first king of Jerusalem – Baldwin I who forced his Armenian wife, Arda, to join this nunnery (although she later escaped and fled to Constantinople). Another Latin princes who was a nun here, was Iveta, the youngest daughter of king Baldwin II and sister o queen Melisende. The nunnery owned numerous properties, including at least one village close to the Mediterranean cost and a few shops in the city of Jerusalem, some of them survive and are in use to this day – they even still bear medieval, Latin inscriptions marking them as property of St Anne! The nuns of St Anne, were sufficiently wealthy that, when Jerusalem was lost to the Muslims, the nunnery was not abolished but rather relocated to Acre and continued to function there until 1291 when Acre as well was also was conquered by Islamic armies. The sisters of St Anne, however, survived even this calamity and fled to Cyprus where a church constructed for them still survives in Famagusta. The preservation of both these churches, the one in Jerusalem and the one in Famagusta is quite remarkable, given the scale of destruction of Frankish monuments in the East, and serves as a reflection of the endurance of the female community that lived by their walls.

PS. Even though it is well preserved, it is worth noting the church of St Anne was damaged though time and was heavily restored in the 19th C. Its current appearance therefore, is probably a bit different from the way it looked in the crusader period. To list just a few examples, originally the church had Romanesque cloisters attached to its southern side which are not preserved to this day, also there was an round window, an oculus, in the center of the façade and most likely the original church would have had a timber pitched roof above it. Also, the current bell tower dates from the 19th C. – the original bell tower had a small dome above it similar to the one preserved in Ballamand (www.deviantart.com/bricksandst… ). Other than that, however, it is still a very well preserved, crusader period structure (the dome is original!).