Technion summer drawing course
Two-days sketching tour in Jerusalem
August 16-17, 2000

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A short portfolio of photographs from the two-day visit of the summer course Technion students and their tutor Architect Dr. Elias Messinas, to Jerusalem.  
The trip included visits to the Old City and the areas around it. The trip was based on the turtor's experience in sketching and observing places and buildings, and on the theories of Betty Edwards ("Drawing on the Right side of the Brain").

To view the final presentation of the course, including murals that the students painted on the walls of the Architecture School at Technion, Haifa, click here


The group visited the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the new Reception Hall built recently by Greek architect Sakis Mitropoulos for the Patriarch of Jerusalem (a spectacular building, which included elaborate halls with gold-plated column-capitals and furniture, a private chapel with a wooden lavishly-carved iconostasis, and a grand marble staircase of white Greek marble brought especially for the building. Architect Mitropoulos opened for the group many inaccessible sites around and on top of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, including the dome of the rotunda. 
We also visited the Sephardic Educational Center of Jerusalem, an historic structure which was built in the beginning of the 20th century on top of the ruins of the Nea Church (4th century). The turor (architect Elias Messinas), who is renovating and remodelling this building, gained access for the students to sketch on the roof of one of the buildings, with breathtaking views of the Jewish Quarter. 
Our visits included also the Efklides residence (a 1906 house which is being renovated by architect Messinas to house the new Greek Cultural Center of Jerusalem, the Templar cemetery at the German Colony of Jerusalem, the Rockfeller museum, near the Old City, and the American Colony hotel. 
As part of the "authentic" experience of Jerusalem, the students spent the night at the Prophet Elias Monastery on Hebron road in Jerusalem, a Greek Orthodox monastery, which hosts Christian pilgrims from Greece, run by Despotis Arkadios. 
 
At the Yaffa gate, before we started exploring the Old City of Jerusalem
At the entrance to the Rockefeller museum, near the Old City of Jerusalem
Inside the newly constructed Reception Hall of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In the center, the Greek architect of the project, Sakis Mitropoulos, an expert in historic restoration, who studied in Venice, student of Carlo Scarpa
Inside the newly constructed Reception Hall of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In the center, the tutor of the summer course, architect Dr. Elias Messinas 
Sketching at the Templar cemetery in the German Colony of Jerusalem
Sketching at the Templar cemetery in the German Colony of Jerusalem
Sketching the Old City skyline from the roof top of the Sephardic Educational Center at the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem
Sketching at the courtyard of the Rockefeller museum
Sketching outside the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, at the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem Sketching at the courtyard of the Rockefeller museum
 
Sketches of the Templar cemetery  
and the Rockfeller museum  
copyright: Elias Messinas
Sketching outside the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, at the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem Seeing the students sketching also 
makes the tutor to want to try  
his/her skills too. These are some sketches by the tutor Elias Messinas
Travel sketchbook exhibition

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Created 22 August 2000