Augusta Victoria, Jerusalem

If you look east from almost any point in Jerusalem, you will see three towers: on the left, the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus; on the right, the Russian Church of the Ascension; and in the middle, the tower of Augusta Victoria Hospital, from which you can see this beautiful 360-degree panorama. To get there, you need to climb 223 steps to the top of the bell tower, which is still in operation and rings every hour. When I visited and photographed in 2018, I did climb because the elevator had not been working for years; in 2025, I visited again as part of a Tower of David tour (recommended!) with the guide Inbal, who made the experience interesting and enlightening and also distributed material, a fraction of which can be seen below. Unfortunately we didn’t go up the tower because they were doing renovations, but they promised that the elevator would be back in operation after twenty years. I’ll have to go back again on a day with better visibility.

The Augusta Victoria complex was established at the end of the Ottoman period by German Kaiser Wilhelm II, as part of his visit to Jerusalem in 1898. The building was constructed as a tribute to his wife, Empress Augusta Victoria. The complex was intended to serve as a royal guesthouse for German pilgrims, as an administrative center and as an expression of official German presence in late 19th-century Jerusalem. Construction was completed in 1910, in a style that combines European architecture – mainly German – with fortress and monastery elements, giving it its massive and unique appearance even today.

Over the years the complex has changed its purpose. Today it houses the Augusta Victoria Medical Center, managed by the Lutheran World Federation, and offers advanced medical services, primarily to residents of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The complex itself contains the Lutheran church, historic residential buildings, extensive gardens, and offices of ecclesiastical and humanitarian organizations. Parts of it also serve community and logistical activities of aid organizations.

From the upper observation point of the Augusta Victoria tower the view opens in all directions without any obstruction, allowing immediate understanding of Jerusalem’s unique location between the mountains and the desert. When standing there, after climbing the narrow stairs, the entire city spreads out like a living map. To the west you see the Old City with all its churches and mosques led by the glittering Dome of the Rock, surrounded by the urban continuum of West Jerusalem; to the north the campus buildings of the Hebrew University, below the neighboring tower, and behind them the neighborhoods spread across the slopes. To the south appear East Jerusalem neighborhoods, interspersed with green slopes and orchards, and the landscape continues southward to the area where the ridges of Gush Etzion begin.

The eastward view is among the most fascinating: the city gives way to more open terrain, but before the landscape becomes desert-like you can clearly see several Arab villages that are part of East Jerusalem, scattered on the slopes above the city. Immediately after them stands out Ma’ale Adumim, a large settlement sitting on a high ridge and breaking the horizon line. Beyond it construction ends almost at once, and from this point begins an open and expansive space. The Judean Desert spreads forward in clear and sharp lines to the Jordan Valley, and on good days you can also see the mountains of Jordan in the background.

The feeling up there is of complete observation – not just panoramic photography but physical understanding of the topography. From this side the city appears as a place standing exactly on the transition line between a dense urban world and an open landscape that continues to the horizon.

And I am already eagerly awaiting my next visit… I promise to photograph a new panorama 😎