Muristán

Portico access to the market of Muristán.

Muristan is a complex of streets and shops in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. This site was the first hospital founded by the Order of Malta.

The area south of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has a long tradition dating back to the days of Judas Maccabeus (second century BC) according to what is recorded in Book II of the Maccabees. According to legend, King Antiochus V advanced to Jerusalem to punish the High Priest for plundering the Tomb of David. While on Golgotha, the king had a divine vision that ordered him to forgive the high priest and build a hospital for the care of the sick and the poor in that place. In 1496, William Caoursin, Vice-Chancellor of the Hospitallers, wrote that Judas Maccabeus and John Hyrcanus founded a hospital there.

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