For more than a month, restoration work has been underway on the Mosaic Center at the al-Uzair Mosque, the oldest mosque in Bethany, in Arabic Al-Azariya, which stands next to the church and the Franciscan convent dedicated to Saint Lazarus. The mosque dates back to the Ottoman period but was built on the remains of […]
Paola, 40 years old, and Riccardo, 49, are a couple of walkers who have decided to undertake The Path of the Disciple, a journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem based on the guidance of Silvano Mezzanzana, published by Edizioni Terra Santa. She a teacher, he a former firefighter and scholar of theology today, both of whom […]
Summer and the long-awaited school holidays can turn into a detestable period for young people living in East Jerusalem and in many other cities in the Palestinian territories: the lack of public, recreational and cultural spaces is a persistent problem that deeply undermines everyday life of children and the whole community. Although the strong summer […]
From 24 to 27 June, a Digital Marketing course was held in Nisf Jubeil, a village in the heart of Samaria, as part of the “Hospitable Bethany” project: sustainable tourism in support of the local community funded by the Italian Agency for Cooperation and Development (project AD10958) implemented by the Association pro Terra Sancta together […]
Last week, after two years of lessons, a group of 20 Palestinian students and professionals finished the Music Therapy course “You will find me in the sound”. The project was promoted by Association pro Terra Sancta in collaboration with Bethlehem University, the Italian association “Musica Prima”, the center “Service of Psychology of Learning and Education […]
The sun beats down strong on these hot summer days. Moisture sticks to the skin, and the smog that one breathes in the streets of the poor neighborhood of Muski covers with its veil an overpopulated and chaotic city. It is precisely here that we meet fra Vincenzo Mistrih, director of the Franciscan Center for […]
As part of the current project, “New mosaicists for Bethlehem”, financed by the Province of Trento and carried out by the Association ATS Pro Terra Sancta, a series of cultural meetings and sightseeing tours in the Al-Tarajmeh and Al-Heirizat quarters of the Old Town have been offered to the residents of Bethlehem, in particular to […]
“In Italy I never had the chance to work at a job related to my degree, ATS has allowed me for the first time to work in my field of study”. Eleonora, 25 years old and a graduate in archaeology and art history, is working as an intern for Association pro Terra Sancta in Jerusalem […]
On the occasion of the celebrations for the Italian Republic Day, the Italian Consul in Jerusalem invited the many Italians who live and work in Jerusalem to a ceremony held on Thursday 13 June on the Casanova terrace, one of the best points to admire the Gerosolimitane landscape : “We decided to celebrate in the […]
The tables occupy the churchyard of Bethany, the city a few miles from Jerusalem where Lazarus, Martha and Mary lived. Everything is ready to begin, for the second consecutive year at the Iftar, the dinner that interrupts the daily fast that Muslims perform during the month of Ramadan, to which, for the occasion, the Franciscans […]
Specialitaly Palestina is the name of the inclusive development project for the tourism sector in Beit Sahour and Bethlehem. Head of the project is the Municipality of Comacchio which proposes to develop innovative hospitality and catering activities involving 27 public and private entities from five Italian regions (Emilia Romagna, Veneto, Puglia, Basilicata and Sicily) including […]
Instead of studying and playing, learning art and music, Syrian children have lost all means for normal and dignified growth due to the war. Instead of having fun and playing, they have to shut themselves up in their homes for fear of going out because death or mutilation awaits them both outside and inside the […]
The village of Ein Karem is located a few kilometers from Jerusalem. In this wooded and quiet area according to Christian tradition the Virgin Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, and according to the story of the evangelist Luke “was kept hidden for five months” meditating on the miracle of late pregnancy granted by […]
The Arabic term Iftar indicates the moment in which the Muslim faithful start drinking and eating again after having spent the day in complete fast from dawn to sunset. Fasting is a religious practice of Islam that lasts the entire month of Ramadan, the month in which the revelation of the Qur’an to Muhammad is remembered. […]
On the occasion of the eighth centenary of the meeting between St. Francis of Assisi and the Sultan of Egypt Al-Malik Al Kamil which took place in Damietta in 1219, the Custody of the Holy Land together with the Faculty of Biblical and Archaeological Sciences in collaboration with the Pontificals From March to November 2019, […]
“Bombs have been falling for days a few kilometers from here, we are fine, but the situation gets worse every day. The Valley of the Orontes river is almost deserted, thousands of people are fleeing from the bombing and many come every day to ask us for food and water, they sleep under olive trees […]
The General Assembly of the Association pro Terra Sancta met in Jerusalem on May 1st to update the members on the strong development of the Association in the past year and to illustrate further proposals for the future. On the agenda: the approval of the Annual Report 2018 and the related presentation of the sources and […]
May is a smiling 15-year-old girl who lives with her family in Bethlehem. Since she was a child she has always suffered from a severe form of squint. “We noticed vision problems when she was just three years old,” her mother Nour tells us. “From that moment on, she always had to wear glasses. Then […]
HIC, Latin word for “here“, is a recurring word in the Franciscan liturgies for Easter. The Latin adverb is strongly connected to the places that mark the moments of the Passion of Christ: here at Mount Zion Jesus celebrated the Easter dinner with his disciples , here in Gethsemane Jesus prayed to the Father before he […]