User:Noahdoolan/French National Domain in the Holy Land

Infobox Territoire

The French National Domain in the Holy Land is a French domain located in the city of Jerusalem, de facto Israeli territory. The domain brings together various French possessions dating back to the 19th Century.

The domain is managed and administered by the Consulate General of French, Jerusalem.

Description
The French Domain consists of four territories in the city of Jerusalem :


 * Eleona Church, in East Jerusalem : the domain includes, at the summet of the Mount of Olives, a cloister whose construction dates to the 1870s and is still unfinished, and underground, the cave called "the Cave of Our Father where, according to tradition, Jesus taught the Our Father prayer to His disciples.
 * The Benedictine Monastery in Abu Gosh, in West Jerusalem : this old commanderie hospitalière of the 12th century is made up of a church and a tomb. Renovated by France, the site has been welcoming Benedictine monks and nuns since 1976.
 * the Tombs of the Kings, in East Jerusalem : although long considered as the tombs of the Kings of Judah, the site is probably the tomb of Helene of Adiabene.
 * The Church of Saint Anne, in East Jerusalem: the site consists of a church of the 12th century and its surroundings that, according to tradition, hosted the parents of the Virgin Mary, of one part, and the Pool of Bethesda at another part.

With the exception of the Tombs of the Kings, its possessions are places of high Christian spirituality.

History
The French presence in Jerusalem goes back to the Crusades. After the fall of the Crusader States, it was made official by the capitulations of 1536 passed between the Ottoman Emperor Suleman the Magnificant and the French King François I. In the years of the following centuries, other capitulations were made between the rulers of the two states for the protection of pilgrims and holy sites in Palestine.

The first of French possessions is the Church of Saint Anne. It was offered to Emperor Napoleon III by Abdülmecid I in 1856 in repayment for the French intervention in the Crimean War that had just recently ended.

The land where the Church of Our Father (or Eleona) is situated was acquired in 1856 by Héloïse de la Tour d'Auvergne who had a monastery built there by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Héloise donated it to France in 1874.

The Tombs of the Kings was found by French archaeologists in 1863, before being acquired by the Pereire Brothers, bankers in their country, in 1871. They donated the site in 1886 to the French State to conserve it for science and the veneration of the faithful children of Israel.

The Monastery in Abu Ghosh was given to France in 1873 by the sultan Abdulaziz in compensation for the loss of the Church of Saint George of Lod, given to the Greek Orthodox Church two years beforehand.

The French possessions were never questioned, the accords of Mytilène in 1901 then the in 1913 concluded with the Sublime Porte having confirmed the "protectorate" of France on these territories. These have been confirmed by the successors of the Ottoman Empire : The State of Israel in 1949 (, not officially ratified by Israel) and The Palestinian National Authority in 1997.