Schick's model of Herod's Temple on the Temple Mount, Schmidt's Girls College, Jerusalem, with portrait of Schick in the background
Schick's model of Temple Mount foundations

The Schick models of Jerusalem are notable wooden models of buildings and areas in the city of Jerusalem constructed by Conrad Schick in the late 19th century. The series of models covered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Islamic buildings of Al-Aqsa on the Temple Mount and the terrain beneath it, as well as replicas of the Jewish Temple based on the information available in his time, and benefitting from his architectural knowledge.[1]

Schick's monograph on the Temple Mount, Die Stiftshütte ("The Tabernacle"), is primarily a commentary on his models.[2][1]

Temple Mount (Haram) models

At Paulus-Haus, Jerusalem
At Christ Church, Jerusalem
At the Bijbels Museum, Amsterdam

Schick's most notable models were of the Temple Mount, which he described as the Haram.[3] Schick's models of the area, particularly of the foundations of the platform, are important to scholars of the area, because Schick was the last European in modern history to be allowed to carry out an archaeological survey of the subterranean spaces beneath the buildings of Al-Aqsa.[4][1] Archaeology or surveying has rarely been permitted in the Temple Mount area, due to religious sensitivities.[5] Only four such surveys of the area as a whole are known from modern times; those of Charles William Wilson, Charles Warren, Claude Reignier Conder, and Conrad Schick, with Schick's access being the most recent and with the broadest access.[6] Schick's access was unique, because he was working to build his model for the Ottoman government[7] during a period in which structural repairs were being made;[8] the models were procured for and exhibited in the Turkish pavilion at the Vienna World Exposition of 1873, alongside the Illés Relief.[3][9]

The first two models were made for the 1873 World's Fair;[4] the smaller initial model likely as part of the competition to win the contract from the Ottoman authorities.[10] The exhibited model, measuring 4 by 3 meters, was visited in Jerusalem by several crowned heads of state and toured the United Kingdom after the World's Fair,[11] but did not find a buyer. It was housed at the Theologisches Seminar St. Chrischona near Basel, Switzerland, for 138 years, until 2012 when it was purchased by Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem.[12]

Schick built further replicas of the Temple Mount for the Ottoman Sultan in 1885. This final model, in four sections, each representing the Temple Mount as it appeared in a particular era, was exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.[11] Two of these models are located in the basement of the Paulus-Haus museum on Nablus Road, just outside the Old City of Jerusalem near the Damascus Gate, and a third is in the Bijbels Museum, Amsterdam.[3]

DateSubjectSize (cm)ScaleNumber madeCurrent location
1872–3?Temple Mount82 × 48 × 9.5 ? ?Palestine Exploration Fund, London[10]
1873Temple Mount400 x 3001:200oneChrist Church, Jerusalem (previously at St Chrischona Mission)
1885Temple Mount (in various periods)260 × 1681:200at least four, three are still knownone in the Bijbels Museum, Amsterdam; two in Paulus-Haus, Jerusalem

Jerusalem topography models

DateSubjectSize (cm)ScaleNumber madeCurrent location
1865Altmüller's second model of Jerusalem25.5 × 32.71:21,600many copiesvarious
1871Topography of Jerusalem65 × 91.5 x 231:2,500 (1:1,250 vertical)one?unknown
1895Topography of Jerusalem85 × 991:2,500 ?German Protestant Institute, Jerusalem

Individual building models

Tabernacle

DateScaleNumber madeCurrent location
c. 18451:20oneunknown
1862/31:18several?unknown

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

DateSize (cm)ScaleNumber madeCurrent location
1862/3132 × 1751:96at least fourChrist Church, Jerusalem
189678 × 1371:200at least twoGerman Evangelical Institute, Jerusalem

Dome of the Rock

One model of the Dome of the Rock, made for the 1873 world's fair. Originally at the St Chrischona Mission, it was sold to an unknown buyer in 2013 for £242,000.[13][14]

DateScaleNumber madeCurrent location
18731:50oneunknown

Church of the Nativity

Model of the Church of the Nativity

DateScaleNumber madeCurrent location
18741:70 ?unknown

Christ Church

DateSize (cm)ScaleNumber madeCurrent location
1870–187591.5 × 94 ?oneChrist Church, Jerusalem

Bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gibson & Jacobson 1994.
  2. ↑ Schick 1896, p. III-IV, 55.
  3. 1 2 3 Goren & Rubin 1996, p. 103–124.
  4. 1 2 Friedman, Matti (5 February 2012). "After 130 years, a tiny Temple Mount comes home". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  5. ↑ Gibson & Jacobson 1994 "Religious sensitivities have discouraged scientific investigation of subterranean features within the Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, which incorporates the area of the ancient Temple Mount. In consequence, the mystery of this sacred place has been heightened, providing fertile ground for flights of fancy concerning the two Jewish temples that formerly occupied the site. Even serious scholars have had to make do with hypotheses concerning the position and layout of these ancient complexes… However, for a brief period in the second half of the nineteenth century a handful of intrepid European explorers, in particular Charles Wilson, Charles Warren, Claude Regnier Conder, and Conrad Schick, succeeded in lifting this veil of secrecy and visited many of the underground chambers that pepper this sacred site."
  6. ↑ Gibson & Jacobson 1994 "They left records of some 45 subterranean chambers that they classified as cisterns as well as other cavities and structural remains. Much of this material was published by them (Wilson 1866: 42–45; Warren 1871:204-17; Warren and Conder 1884; Schick 1887:72–87; 1896: 292–305), but many important details were confined to manuscript and deposited in the archives of the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) in London. Some of the most reliable and detailed information was recorded by the German-born Conrad Schick… Yet, Schick, with his sharp eye for detail, subsequently provided superior information about the subterranean cisterns of the Haram."
  7. ↑ Gibson & Jacobson 1994 "Normally, the interior of the Haram was kept out of bounds to explorers, but in 1872 Schick was afforded a golden opportunity to investigate this area. Turkey wished to be represented at the Great Exhibition to be held in Vienna, and the Austrian consul in Jerusalem persuaded them to put on display there a detailed model of the Haram al-Sharif. As Schick related in a letter to Charles Wilson, dated 7 June 1872, he was awarded the assignment of producing a suitable model in wood at a reasonable cost. He wanted his model to be of value to "students of history and topography" and not merely a display of craftsmanship. It was exhibited with another model in the Turkish pavilion at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873 and later they were sold by his agent, Rev. J.H. Brühl, to the Mission House Museum in Basle, Switzerland, as we are informed in letters from Schick to Wilson, written between 16 June, 1873 and 23 April 1874. Schick was determined to depict "the substructions (sic), cisterns and all underground buildings as well as those above ground". He thereupon set about examining and recording as many of the subterranean features as he was able, during the years 1873 and 1875, and continued making models."
  8. ↑ Gibson & Jacobson 1994 "This was a period when much needed repairs were being made to the Dome of the Rock by the Ottoman Turkish authorities which brought builders and engineers into the Haram. These circumstances made it easier for Schick to gain access to areas normally barred to foreigners. He was able to observe digging operations and the clearance of blocked underground channels. Several of the cisterns were visited and recorded by him at this time."
  9. ↑ Zschokke 1874, pp. 4–9
  10. 1 2 Rubin 2006, pp. 46–50.
  11. 1 2 Goldhill, Simon (2005). The Temple of Jerusalem. Wonders of the world. Harvard University Press. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-674-01797-9. Retrieved 2 September 2023. …he was renowned for constructing large-scale wooden models of the city and its monuments. He built a model of the Tabernacle, which was visited in Jerusalem by the Prussian crown prince and the Austrian emperor, before successfully touring the British Isles ('bringing the Holy Land to those who cannot visit it: the exhibition was counted a great success by his missionary employers). After it was exhibited at the 1873 World's Fair at Vienna, his model of the Holy Sepulchre was bought by the king of Württemberg, who rewarded him with a knighthood. He was also commissioned by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire for a model of the Temple Mount for the same exhibition, as he wrote proudly to Captain Wilson, of Wilson's Arch renown (which other archaeologists hoped vainly would open access to hitherto forbidden areas). But the crowning glory of his career was a further model of the Temple Mount in four sections, each of which represented a different period. It could be taken apart and put together to show the topography of the site, Solomon's Temple, the destruction and reconstruction by 'Zerubbabel and Herod, and finally the Muslim Haram al-Sharif. It was built in 1885 and exhibited posthumously at the World's Fair at St Louis in 1904, where it was sold for the huge sum of £800.
  12. ↑ Hasson, Nir (15 February 2012). "Tiny Model of Temple Mount Returns to Jerusalem – Haaretz.com". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  13. ↑ Magouliotis 2021.
  14. ↑ al-Jubeh 2016, p. 11, 16.
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