Museum Quality Rare Church Model

Up for auction recently at Bonhams, a British auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques, was perhaps one of the earliest souvenir buildings. The 17th / 18th century model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Bethlehem is made of bone, mother of pearl and olive wood. Thanks to David W. for the tip about this auction. Composed of numerous removable sections, the upper section is inscribed, “Oriens, Meridies, Septentrio, Occidens.” The interior also fully inlaid and it stands 15.5" high by 19" wide. Similar models are in various collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum. These models record the rebuilding of the tomb and Church by Boniface of Ragusa in 1555 and appear from the early 17th century onwards. They appear to be related to drawings of the church made by the architect and Franciscan Bernadino Amico in the 1590s, for model makers to use. These models were probably made in Bethlehem under Franciscan supervision as gifts for diplomats and rulers and as souvenirs for grand tourists. There is an example of one recorded in the Danish Kunstkammer in 1674 and another is datable to the same period as it appears on the arms of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. A similar example of was sold at Christies, King Street, London, 5 December 1995, lot 64 for £14,950. The city of Jerusalem is unique in being sacred to three religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built by the Roman emperor Constantine I 'the Great' (reigned 307-37) in 325: it contains the site of the Crucifixion (Golgotha), the Tomb of Christ (the Holy Sepulchre), and the grotto where St Helena discovered the Cross (known as St Helena's Crypt). The Anastis (Resurrection) Rotunda encloses the tomb. The building was magnificently decorated; marble walls contrasted sharply with the coffered ceiling painted in gold.

Large Replica of Burj khalifa

The tallest building in the world deserves the tallest souvenir building. Building Collector reader Howie G. visited Dubai recently and sent me photos and information about a very large replica of the Burj khalifa. His keen collector's eye spotted this soaring souvenir at the Dubai Mall which just opened with 1200 stores and is a short walk from the Burj Khalifa building. The photo above on the left shows the replica for sale with a person next to it. Priced at ₤50,000 or US $66,570, this souvenir's price matches the actual building's high elevation. Howie reports that he's unsure what material the replica is made from since they won't let you touch it. From this mall, you can walk underground to the base of the real building and take the elevator up. Another building replica (image on right without the person) is in the waiting area for the tour. The observation deck is on the 124th floor of the building. Even the elevator ride has a skyrocketing price, "It costs about $33 to go to the 124th floor." Howie said. Tours start on the half hour and reservations are required. "However, if you want to pay $125, they will squeeze you in." when you show up Howie discovered. "I bought another replica at the observatory gift shop. Much smaller, maybe 13 inches tall, gold, lucite with fake diamonds for $300. Typical dubai. Looks just like the smaller version we all have but smaller."

Dubai's Burj Khalifa Closes Observation Deck

The word's tallest building unexpectedly closed access to its record high observation deck due to electrical problems. Read more about it here. Below is a video of the view from the top of the Burj Khalifa observation deck.

Tallest Buildings in the World

Do architects fight like siblings? ‘I want to be tallest, no I want to,” they might bicker. Since the term ‘skyscraper’ was created, there has been a race to the top. When the Burj Khalifa skyscraper opened on Monday, it  now holds the title of the World’s tallest building overtaking Taipei 101. Third place will go to the Shanghai World Financial Center, then, the Petronas Towers and the Willis Tower (formally the Sears Tower) will be the 6th tallest skyscraper in the world. Interestingly, most of the recent tallest buildings have been both designed and constructed by just a few companies. The Burj Khalifa was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, who also designed the Willis Tower in Chicago and 1 World Trade Center, former known as Freedom Tower, which is the main building of the new World Trade Center under construction on the site of the destroyed WTC. The primary builder of the Burj Khalifa is South Korean Samsung Engineering & Construction, who also built the Taipei 101 and Petronas Twin Towers. The ‘tallest structures in the world’ list varies somewhat with any’ tallest buildings in the world’ list. The former includes other man-made structures and towers such as the Canadian CN tower and T.V. towers. The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), recently announced a change to its height criteria for judging who wins the tallest prize. Infocus Tech makes souvenir replicas of most of these skyscrapers. Other souvenir versions of the Burj Dubai and Petronas towers are also available. At over 800 meters (2684 feet) and more than 160 stories, the Burj Dubai is a supertall skyscraper under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The building resembles a bundled tube form - a rounded version similar to the Willis Tower’s multiple connected square segments. Its design is reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's vision for The Illinois, a mile high skyscraper designed for Chicago, but never built. The design of Burj Dubai is derived from patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture. The design architect Adrian Smith has said the triple-lobed footprint of the building was inspired by the flower Hymenocallis. The tower is composed of three elements arranged around a central core. As the tower rises from the flat desert base, setbacks occur at each element in an upward spiralling pattern, decreasing the cross section of the tower as it reaches toward the sky. There are 26 terraces in the Burj Khalifa. At the top, the central core emerges and is sculpted to form a finishing spire. A Y-shaped floor plan maximizes views of the Persian Gulf. Viewed from above or from the base, the form also evokes the onion domes of Islamic architecture.

Tallest Building in the World Opens

A spectacular fireworks display celebrated the opening of the newest and tallest skyscraper in the world. The Arab Emirates building, known during its construction as the Burj Dubai, also has a new name - it's now the Burj Khalifa. As real estate prices crash in Dubai, this elevated edifice rises to a record 2,717 feet. The building could be its own self-contained city boasting housing, offices, shopping, nightclubs and mosques. It will have the world’s first Armani hotel, the world’s highest swimming pool (on the 76th floor) and the highest observation deck (124th floor). The faithful can also literally be closer to god in the world's highest mosque on the 158th floor of the Burj Khalifa. The name change is in honor of the president of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who funded a $10 billion bailout last month to the cash-strapped city. The Burj took 5 years to build and cost $1.5 billion.

The Tomb of Christ

In honor of Easter, fellow Souvenir Building Collector Scott D. researched a building appropriate for today. The Edicule of the Holy Sepulchre (The Tomb of Christ) which is labeled as an “unidentified Jerusalem Church” in the Monumental Miniatures book (#1343). The site is where the New Testament says that Jesus was crucified and is said to also contain the place where Jesus was buried (the sepulchre). The church has been an important pilgrimage destination since at least the 4th century, as the purported site of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Scott Writes, “Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, also called the Church of the Resurrection, sits the Edicule. Constantine’s Edicule, the first of the four "little houses" which have covered and protected the remains of the tomb since its discovery in 325-6. The best evidence how the first Edicule looked like is provided by a replica standing about a foot high, cut in a block of Pyrennean marble, found at Narbonne in south-west France, and dating from the fifth or sixth century AD. Being cut in local marble it cannot be a direct copy of the Edicule in Jerusalem, but must be based on some intermediate copy, probably itself a model rather than a set of drawings. Therefore, it might be considered one of the very first souvenir buildings. Models of it have been found in Cathedrals across Europe and even whole scale replicas. Other souvenirs over the ages have been molded pewter flasks and medallions, the painted lid of a box of relics (found in the Lateran in Rome) and images on pottery and glass where all for the pilgrim trade. Some museums and churches might have small replicas of the Edicule not knowing what it is. The present Edicule is the fourth to be built on the site. The first one was deliberately destroyed in 1009. Crusaders rebuilt it in 1099. It laid in decay till 1555 when the Edicule was rebuilt. The Edicule of 1555, the third in succession, preserved all the essential features of the medieval Edicule it replaced. This is the version that most ancient souvenir models were based off of. A fire in 1808 badly damaged the Edicule and the version we see today was built by a Greek architect who practiced in Constantinople, Nikolaos Komnenos. It is an Ottoman Baroque style Kiosk erected in 1809-1810. The present Edicule has suffered much over the 190 years since it was built. For 40 years, the rains and snows of Jerusalem winters poured down on it through the open eye of the dome immediately above. In 1868, the dome was rebuilt and the opening shielded by a cover. But the damage had been done. Gradually the Edicule settled under the weight of the heavy vaults Komnenos had erected over the two compartments inside the tomb, the Chapel of the Angel and the tomb chamber itself.The British Mandatory authorities were alarmed by the state of the tomb as soon as they arrived in Palestine in 1917. Ronald Storrs, then Military Governor of Jerusalem, at once requested the Latin, Greek, and Armenian patriarchs to suspend the custom of hanging Lenten ornaments on the tomb, as they were accustomed to do under the status quo which governs procedures in the church. Two of the patriarchs agreed, but the third would not, and Storrs wrote laying responsibility "for any possible damage accruing to the sacred structure ..." at the door of the third patriarch. In 1926, alarmed by the open gaps between the bulging stones, the government arranged for an architect, A.C. Holliday, civic advisor to the Pro-Jerusalem Society, (which had been founded by Storrs) to survey the tomb. After lengthy negotiations, the agreement of the religious communities was obtained to the removal of some stones on the north side of the Edicule, so as to allow inspection of the core of the wall. The British were somewhat reassured. Holliday’s report revealed that the Edicule had an inner structure which seemed vertical and sound enough. Only the skin of masonry cladding added in 1809-10 was coming away under the weight of the vaults and upper works. The really important thing which no-one seems to have realized at the time was that this investigation showed that within the 19th-century skin there was an earlier Edicule. Recent discoveries suggest that the remains of several earlier Edicule survive one inside another, like the skins of an onion. The calm wisdom of Holiday’s report was vindicated the following year; when the church was severely damaged in the great earthquake of 1927, the Edicule held fast. For the next 40 years the whole church was a forest of scaffolding. Even to get in, one had to pass under the raking shoring which prevented the Crusader south front from collapsing into the courtyard. For 20 years nothing was done to the Edicule, but in 1947 a survey by a firm of consulting engineers, Freeman, Fox and Partners of London, showed that its "condition must be on the border of instability and reconstruction cannot be safely neglected." In March, 1947, as the last of the Mandate governments many actions in the care of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Public Works Department wrapped the Edicule in a cradle of steel, the girders. And so the Edicule stands today, the holiest shrine of Christendom covered in steel. From time to time small pieces flake off the marble blocks as the pressures shift, and little piles of stone dust can be found around the bases of the spiral columns of the east front. The structure is tottering and it can only be a matter of time before another earth tremor brings it down. Seems the Edicule architecture last, less and less thought the centuries. The first version was around for 600 years before it was destroyed. The Crusader version lasted for 300 years before it was restored. The third Edicule lasted 250 years till it was badly damaged in a fired. The recent Edicule is under 200 years old and needs restoration yet again. Recently, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is going through a restoration agreed upon the 3 religious communities in the church. It may finally be possible to examine the Edicule itself, for its restoration is urgent and cannot be long put off. Here, within all the subsequent stages in the rebuilding of this most sacred of Christian shrines, the remains of the original rock-cut tomb may be found. The current souvenir versions since there have been many versions made of the Edicule over the centuries are made out of pot metal. Most are on wooden bases that are 5 inches long and the top of the model being 4 inches tall. Some of the models have inscribed Jerusalem on them. Hence in the past people thought that this is a church located there. They are half right for it is located inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Yet again and again the Edicule model has been produced for the pilgrim trade and will likely continue for centuries to come.” – Scott

Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem

Rachel's Tomb is a sacred site located between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank of Israel. It is of significant historical and religious site for Jews, Muslims and Christians. The site, believed to be the burial place of the biblical matriarch Rachel. She was the wife of Jacob and mother of two of his twelve sons. She died giving birth to Benjamin and "Jacob set a pillar upon her grave." The structure on the site, a cube topped by a dome, was built around 1620 by the Ottoman Turks. It was lengthened in 1860 by Sir Moses Montefiore. Due to the deteriorating security situation, the original domed structure was fortified and enclosed inside a building with a hall from the entrance in the 1990's. Recently, the site has been surrounded by a barrier to separate it from Bethlehem. Rachel's Tomb is difficult to visit because of its location near the Israel - West Bank border, but many still manage to visit this important sacred site. Only bullet-proof buses are allowed direct access to Rachel's Tomb. Souvenir buildings made of Rachel’s Tomb include a 3.5” tall brass replica from the 1960’s. An antique box in the form of Rachel's tomb from 1915 was estimated at auction to sell for up to $40,000. (photo below) A tzedakah box styled after Rachel's Tomb is sterling silver with a wood base is hand worked by a family of Israeli silversmiths. Another version is a hand-painted, resin replica which includes an in-depth description on the bottom, outlining the name and historical significance. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a souvenir replica of The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, believed to be to site of Christ’s birth. Do you know other souvenir buildings from Israel? Let us know via the Comments link below.