About the project
The Church of the Dormition is a Benedictine church and monastery built by German Catholics between 1900-1910 over a series of ruined predecessors marking the spot where, according to tradition, Mary died. Its construction was a project of the Lazarist Fathers, and was supported by the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, who visited Jerusalem in 1898.The Romanesque style church, designed by architect Heinrich Renard of Koln, features a conical roof that physically dominates Mount Zion and can be seen from almost every vantage point in the city. The exterior was modeled after the Worms Cathedral and the interior designed as a replica of Charlemagne’s palace chapel at Aix-la-Chapelle, with walls of inlaid mosaics depicting events from Christian history. The Jerusalem Foundation supported purchase and installation of the church’s choir organ, which was built by the German Oberlinger Pipe Organ Building Company, one of the oldest organ building firms in Europe.
