On April 18, 1989, the Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem opened to the public with a fanfare of trumpets and fireworks.¹ The historical museum was located in the Citadel, an Ottoman fortress, and invited visitors to walk through Jerusalem's history chronologically from the Canaanite period to 1967. The museum told the story of Jerusalem's history, using artists' renderings, reproductions, and conceptual creations, rather than featuring authentic artifacts.

This dissertation explores the process of the Tower of David Museum's creation against the backdrop of the contested city of Jerusalem, and places the museum in the continuum of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Zionist and Palestinian national imagination of Jerusalem. It explores the historical moment in which the Tower of David was created after the 1967 war, and details the process of creation from the mid 1970's through 1989. The study analyzes several of the museum's design proposals and evaluates the evolution of the museum's concepts. It further analyzes the text of the Tower of David Museum's permanent exhibition and explores the reaction of various Jerusalem communities to the museum.

Cultural Citadel explores the tension inherent in the museum founders' pledge to represent the importance of Jerusalem to the three monotheistic religions and emphasize Jerusalem's exclusive relationship with Jews and Judaism. It shows how the founders sought to build a museum that emphasizes the Jewish connection to the city while also representing the other religions and their connection to Jerusalem. It demonstrates that one of the founders' primary goals was to nurture visitors' emotional connection with Jerusalem. The dissertation further examines the Tower of David's ultimate mission: to lay claim to Jerusalem and emphasize the link between present Israeli rulers and ancient Jewish sovereigns. The museum serves as a cultural fortress, in which Israel tells its own version of Jerusalem's past and claims Jerusalem's cultural heritage in the face of ongoing political conflict in the city.

¹"With a Fanfare of Trumpets," The Jerusalem Post (Jerusalem), April 14, 1989, 2.