Global Jerusalem

Historically, the city of Jerusalem has constituted the primary physical and conceptual interface of the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.The landscape, art, and architecture of the city, and related pilgrimage practices, commemorated shared histories extending back to the origins of both religions and forward to the future events associated with the End of Time.Most fundamentally, the city was and continues to be perceived as a site of convergence between heaven and earth by Jews, Christians, and Muslims across the globe.This belief has shaped the development of interrelated artistic and pilgrimage traditions centered on the idea of Jerusalem.The city has and continues to attract a remarkable diversity of people to from across the world in times of both peace and war.For those who never journeyed to the city, the idea of Jerusalem motivated the creation of art and books that facilitated an imaginary experience of the Holy City’s past, present, and future.Since the Middle Ages, technologies of representation, from writing (pilgrimage accounts) to hand-made pictures, printing, and photography, have mediated and virtualized the experience of Jerusalem for communities of the faithful across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.Contemporary representations of the city in cyberspace, including virtual reconstructions, digital archaeology, and digitized books, are in various ways rooted in this long history.The contemporary concept of virtual pilgrimage particularly has its foundations in the textual, pictorial, and architectural cultures of the medieval period.This project will bring together existing digital resources relating to the historical and contemporary experiences of Jerusalem in cyberspace.This includes the remediation of medieval materials, like texts recounting the experiences of Jewish, Christian, or Muslim pilgrims and crusaders who made real or imagined journeys to Jerusalem, digitized illustrated manuscripts and printed books, architectural renderings and photographs, and virtualized pilgrimages / tours of Jerusalem and its environs.The creation of this website has been funded by a grant from the University of Connecticut’s Provost’s Office and has received additional support from the University of Connecticut’s Greenhouse Studios.