Jaffa Clock Tower


The clock tower in Jaffa is a tower dating back to the Ottoman era in Palestine. It is located in the city center of Jaffa, and it is one of the 7 towers erected in the cities of Palestine in the year 1901 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Sultan Abdul Hamid II ascending the Ottoman throne. It is considered one of the most important Ottoman Islamic architectural monuments in the city and still is today. Its construction was completed in 1906 and the name was taken from the name of Sultan Abdul Hamid. It was built with the contributions of the local residents, Jews and Muslim.
The Jaffa Clock Tower is one of seven clock towers built in Palestine during the Ottoman period. The others are located in Safed, Acre, Nazareth, Haifa, Nablus. Jerusalem also had a clock tower built during the Ottoman period, but it has not survived to the present day because the British army, who occupied the area until 1948, demolished it.

History

The construction of the tower was initiated by Moritz Schoenberg, a Jewish businessman and clockmaker who also built the adjacent Bustrus St. to commemorate the silver jubilee of the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II. The tower was built with contributions of the residents of the city, Arabs and Jews, headed by Joseph Bey Moyal.
The first stone of the tower was laid in September 1900. Within a year two floors were built and the construction of a third floor had begun. In 1903 the clock tower had been erected and Schoenberg designed and installed four clocks at its top. It is similar to the clock tower of Khan al-Umdan in Acre that is dedicated to the same purpose. More than a hundred similar clock towers were built throughout the Ottoman Empire due to this occasion.
In 1966 the Jaffa Clock Tower was renovated, new clocks were installed and colorful mosaic windows designed by Arie Koren to describe the history of Jaffa were added.
In 2004 the clock tower appeared on an Israeli stamp worth 1.3 sheqels. It was together with the clock towers in Safed, Acre, Haifa and Jerusalem featured in a series of Ottoman Clock Towers In Israel.