Iconostasis

Item Set

Title
Iconostasis
Description
This collection consists of digital images of icons contained within the main iconostasis of the Church of Saint Nicholas in Beit Jala (near Bethlehem). The majority of the icons are in the Jerusalem School style, an indigenous Palestinian movement from the 19th and early 20th century.

The Church of Saint Nicholas was built and funded in 1925 by the local community of Beit-Jala, not the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. It has a unique legal status that sits outside of Waqf endowments, making the collection of icons an interesting case study for the articulation of Arab identity within transnational Orthodox politics.

Many of the icons predate the founding of the church, due in part to the presence of the far older Chapel of Saint George beneath the current church. This chapel is all that remains of an ancient monastery built around a network of caves where Saint Nicholas is held to have lived during the 3rd century CE.

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