Our tour of Crusader Jerusalem is aided by the description recorded by an anonymous pilgrim who visited the city in about 1220, and by the map from the Cambrai manuscript, circa 1150. Both give a detailed description of the city, providing evidence of the organization of the city and its sites. The pilgrim relates: "In the city of Jerusalem there are four principal gates, in the shape of a cross, one opposite the other... David's Gate faces west, and standsexactly opposite the Golden Gate, which faces east... This gate belongs to the Tower of David, and is therefore called David's Gate." When the city was conquered, Raimond de Saint Gilles, the leader of the troop of knights from southern France, captured the citadel (Tower of David).
In spite of his opposition, he was forced to hand the citadel over to Godfrey of Bouillon.
When Baldwin I reached Jerusalem, the citadel was ceded to him, and in 1101-1104 it served as the residence of the kings of Crusader Jerusalem.
Later, the kings lived in the Templum Domini (the el-Aqsa Mosque), but in 1118 they moved back to a site near the citadel, in a specially built palace.
The pilgrim recounts: "The principal road which leads from the Tower of David directly to the Golden Gate is called David Street. To the left of the Tower of David is a great square where they sell wheat." The Jaffa Gate square and entrance to David Street have undergone some alterations since the thirteenth century, and wheat is not sold here today, but the names of the sites are the same -- the Tower of David and David Street. |
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