By Faten Mitwasi, Jabra Mitwasi, Sary Zananiri
Tucked away in the hills just outside Bethlehem, the Church of Saint Nicholas in Beit Jala is more than a place of worship—it holds stories and a centuries-old visual tradition on the brink of being forgotten. In a time when tangible heritage across Palestine is increasingly at risk, we embarked on a project to document and digitally preserve over 150 icons from this historic site, bringing new light to a distinct and under-studied artistic tradition: the Jerusalem School of iconography.
Built in 1925 by the local community of Beit Jala—rather than the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate—the Church of Saint Nicholas stands above the far older Chapel of Saint George. That chapel stands as the only remaining section of a monastery built around a network of caves where Saint Nicholas is said to have lived in the 4th century CE. Today, numerous legends and miracles are attributed to Saint Nicholas, and many of the church’s icons visually narrate these miraculous events.
The icon collection includes wall paintings, altar and iconostasis panels, and portable icons. Most date from the 1870s to the 1920s, with a few earlier works in a more primitive style located at the Chapel of Saint George, as well as a handful of contemporary icons. What makes this collection particularly significant is its strong representation of the Jerusalem School style—an indigenous Palestinian artistic movement from the 19th and early 20th centuries. This style, rich in local symbolism and technique, remains largely overlooked by both global scholarship and museum institutions, which tend to focus on Byzantine, Russian, or occasionally Balkan styles of iconography.
Our digitisation project aimed not only to safeguard and disseminate this cultural heritage through digitisation, but also to address this scholarly gap. Documenting a single, intact collection allowed us to trace stylistic evolutions across time and to examine how local iconography reflects broader cultural and theological shifts within the Orthodox Church in Palestine.
The project also sheds light on the unique status of the church itself. Constructed with local stone and community labour, the Church of Saint Nicholas falls outside traditional Waqf endowments and ecclesiastical hierarchies. As such, it serves as a valuable case study for understanding how Arab Orthodox identity is expressed through both material culture and religious practice.
The icons were categorised into five sub-collections based on their placement: wall paintings, iconostasis icons, altar icons, miscellaneous hanging icons, and those in Saint George’s Chapel. Each icon was photographed and documented with descriptions, dimensions, media, and any available archival data. Condition reports were also compiled to assist in future conservation efforts.
This digitised collection has been added to the Planet Bethlehem Archive, offering scholars, conservators, and cultural workers access to a catalogued set of images and metadata. We see this pilot study as the first step toward a broader effort to preserve the Jerusalem School’s artistic legacy and to encourage similar documentation efforts in other Palestinian churches.
In March 2025, we were contacted by a parishioner from St Michael’s Melkite Catholic Cathedral in Sydney, Australia. As part of their conservation and restoration efforts, they discovered a strong stylistic resemblance between two of their icons and those in St Nicholas Church. Thanks to the digitisation and the public accessibility of the Planet Bethlehem Archive, this connection was made possible, enabling us to understand global circulations of Jerusalem School icons purchased by diaspora communities in the early twentieth century. We have now, with the St Michael’s Melkite Catholic Cathedral, begun a new phase of research, exploring transnational links in iconographic tradition and practice.
This project was generously supported by CBRL through their Networking Partnerships Award. It was carried out by Faten Nastas Mitwasi, Jabra Mitwasi, Jacob Norris, and Sary Zananiri, in close collaboration with the priests and custodians of the Church of Saint Nicholas.
The collection is publicly accessible on the Planet Bethlehem Archive.
Photography by Faten Nastas Mitwasi and Jabra Mitwasi.
Sary Zananiri is a Senior Lecture at Monash Art, Design and Architecture. His research focuses on identity and visual culture in the modern Middle East.
Faten Nastas Mitwasi is a Palestinian artist and curator currently pursuing a PhD in Screen Cultures and Curatorial Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. Her research examines the survivance of Palestinian visual culture throughout the past century and its influence on the contemporary art scene.
Jabra Mitwasi is a lecturer at Dar Al-Kalima University in Palestine and St. Lawrence College in Canada. A graphic designer and artist specializing in Arabic calligraphy, he has a strong interest in cultural heritage, particularly Palestinian icon painting.
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