 Muristan, Jerusalem
Photo: Hgec135, in the public domain
Muristan, which means "hospital" in Persian, is a maze of streets and shops in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was here that the first hospital of the Knights of St John was located. The Muristan area is located just south of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It has a long hospitaller tradition going back to the 2nd century BC.
Excavations of the Muristan were done at the turn of the 20th century. It showed that the Hospitaller complex occupied an approximately square area that measures 160 yards (east-west) and 143 yards (north-south). Little was left of the original buildings. What remains included the Church of Mar Hanna, a series of arches on David Street, and the remains of the north door of the Hospitaller's church of St. Mary Latina, which were incorporated into the modern Church of the Redeemer. Today what remains of the hospital is a modern memorial in a small recess barred from the street with an iron gate and an enclosed yard.
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