Event
Vernissage Sat. 27th of Sept. at 8pm
With Sceptre and Pilgrim-stick.
Austrian Presence in the Holy Land since the days of Emperor Franz Joseph.
The exhibiton can be visited daily from 10am to 8pm till the 28 of Oct.
Special thanks to the DomMuseum Vienna and the Austrian Cultural Forum!
When in 1869 Emperor Franz Joseph was invited to the opening-ceremony of the Suez Canal, he decided to use these chance for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Emperor who had among his many titles also the one "King of Jerusalem" traveled in attendance of most of the k.u.k. government to Palestine in order to visit the Holy Places as a pilgrim. Greeted enthusiastically by all the religions of Jerusalem, as there are Jews, Moslems and Christians, he entered on November, 9th 1869 the Holy City. He was the first Christian Emperor to accede the ground of Jerusalem after 600 years, since the times of the Crusades.
Not only his extraordinary charity, which Emperor Franz Joseph demonstrated during his stay in Palestine and which caused enthusiasm and sympathy throughout the population and religions, was the reason that the Austrian empire was well respected and beloved from this time on.
Also connected with this visit of Franz Joseph was the often articulated wish of the Habsburg monarchy to show presence in the Holy Land and act there as a protecting power of the interests of the Roman-Catholic Church. For this reason, the support of already existing and the foundation of new Austrian institutions was an important point in Austrian politics. This development was based on the connection of religious perceptions with general targets of foreign policy and economical interests.
With this exhibition, a rudimentarily explored chapter of Austrian history was edited for the first time: based on the pilgrimage of Emperor Franz Joseph the manifold aspects of Austrian dedication to the Holy Land are showed. The activities and the development of Austrian institutions in the Holy Land are especially presented, namely the consulates, hospitals, Lloyd- and post-offices.
The still existing Austrian Hospice in the Via Dolorosa which was established in 1863 is not only the oldest pilgrim house of this character in the Holy Land, but also a great piece of art of the Austrian historism in the middle of the old city of Jerusalem.
Already since the 18th century, the Habsburg monarchy had established consular offices in Akko and Jaffa and in 1849, also in Jerusalem a consulate was installed. Soon, the tasks of it weren't as actually planned the protection of the interests of the Catholic Church, but the protection of the steadily growing Jewish communities. Most of the Jews who lived in Jerusalem in these times knew how to ensure themselves the protection of the Austrian consulate, also the ones who didn't originally come from the Danube-monarchy.
Also economy and infrastructure gained advantages of the presence of the Austrians. In 1859, they installed the first regular post system in the Holy Land and the ships of the steamship company of the Austrian Lloyd called at the port of Jaffa from 1853 until the start of World War I. and were the only foreign ones which also frequented the Haifa port. For this reason, the Austrian Lloyd and the k.u.k. post company reached a market controlling position in the Middle East.
In this exhibition, also Austria's traditional acting as mediator in the Middle East is an aspect. The communities of Jews who came from the Austrian empire, from Hungary and Russia could establish themselves in Jerusalem, Akko, Haifa, Jaffa, Saffed and Tiberias due to the protection of the Austrian consuls and consular agents. Simultaneously, the dialogue with the Muslim world was taken care of; after all, the Austrian empire had in those times the reputation to have the best relationship to the Ottoman Empire.