| The Old City of Akko (Acre) |
| The International Conservation Center |
| Conserving the International Conservation Center Building |
| Orderer | Israel Antiquities Authority |
| Duration | October 2009 |
| Implemented by: |
Arch. Yaara Shaltiel
Landscape Arch. Ido Rosental
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The International Conservation Center building in Old Akko (Block 18011, Lot 175) is located alongside the seawall in the southern part of the city and looks out over the Bay of Haifa and Mount Carmel.
The thickness of the walls and the vaulted structure on the ground floor, as well as the characteristics of the water system that was discovered, indicate that parts of this floor were built in the Crusader period, in what was then the Pisan Quarter. Documentation of the building has revealed that the structure was originally erected as a courtyard house. It seems that in the second half of the nineteenth century the courtyard was covered and the first story was converted to a central hall house. The building at this time became a luxurious villa consisting of two stories.
At the beginning of the twentieth century the building was owned by the Chawa family, one of the wealthiest families in the Old City. In 1950 Assad Chawa and Chaim Stein converted the building into a hotel and at the beginning of the 1970’s it was rented to the Youth Hostel Association and was even renovated. The hostel was run by a private franchisee who was a resident of the city from the end of the 1980s until 2001. Thanks to a generous donation the Israel Antiquities Authority was able to purchase the Chawa family’s interest in the building in 2005 in order to establish, together with the Old Akko Economic Company and the Municipality of Akko, an international center for teaching the conservation professions.
The aim of the current project is to rehabilitate the building so that it can be used as an international center for conservation. A documentation file of the building was compiled as the first stage in the project. The information that was gathered serves as a basis for drawing up the conservation and rehabilitation plans.
To view the figures, click on the figure caption
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