Gallery
Description
Property Name: Al-Yonisi Mosque, Safed
Inventory No: 972-2-34
Date of infill of the inventory form: 2020-08-31
Country (State party): Palestine
Province: Safed
Town: Safed
Geographic coordinates: 32°58’2.25″N
35°29’33.86″E
Historic Period: Ottoman
Year of Construction: 1900
Style: Ottoman
Original Use: Mosque
Current Use: Art Gallery
Architect: Unknown
Significance
Al-Yonisi Mosque: It is known as the Great Mosque, the Government House Mosque, or the Market Mosque. It is the largest mosque in Safed. It was built in the late Ottoman period (year 1318 AH / 1900 AD). The Zionist occupiers have turned it into a gallery of drawings and photos.
Selection Criteria
i. to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
ii. to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
vi. to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance
State of Preservation
After turning it into a gallery of drawings and photos. Arabic manuscripts were removed from its walls, except for a marble panel in which poetry was carved, and prayer is also prohibited.
References
Yusuf, Faraj Allah Ahmad. 2011. Mosques of Palestine: under the Zionist occupation. Dar Al-Qalam, 2011.
Web sources
The Palestinian Encyclopaedia website: https://www.palestinapedia.net/
The Palestinian News & Info Agency website: http://info.wafa.ps/