Beneath Acre’s Ottoman citadel lies the headquarters built by the Knights Hospitaller when the Crusader city became their principal base in Palestine. Known…
Beneath Acre’s Ottoman citadel lies the headquarters built by the Knights Hospitaller when the Crusader city became their principal base in Palestine. Known in Arabic as قاعات الفرسان, the complex preserves the institutional centre from which the order housed the sick, received pilgrims and administered its affairs during the 12th and 13th centuries. The Hospitallers first received property in Acre in the early 12th century. By the middle of that century they had established a fortified compound in the north-western quarter of the city, beside its northern wall. After Crusader forces retook Acre in 1191, the order transferred its headquarters from Jerusalem and enlarged the complex with new wings and upper levels. Acre between Salahuddin al-Ayubi and the Third Crusade Acre’s history changed after Salahuddin al-Ayubi defeated the Crusader army at Hattin in 583 AH/1187 and restored the city to Muslim rule. Four years later, following a prolonged siege, the armies of the Third Crusade captured Acre. Jerusalem remained under Muslim rule, making the port the political and administrative centre of the reduced Crusader kingdom. This shift explains the scale of the Hospitaller compound. The halls formed part of a larger quarter containing the order’s fortress, hospital, hospice and church. Archaeological excavations have identified streets, water and sanitation systems, workshops and service areas around the main institutional buildings, placing the complex within the working fabric of medieval Acre rather than treating it as an isolated fortress. The Mamluk recovery of Acre In 690 AH/1291, the Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Khalil ibn Qalawun led the campaign that recovered Acre from the Crusaders. The victory ended their rule in the city and removed their last major stronghold on the Palestinian coast. The Hospitallers withdrew from Acre, and the compound ceased to function as their headquarters. Much of the Crusader city was subsequently covered by collapse and later construction. During Acre’s revival under Ottoman rule in the 18th and 19th centuries, new buildings were raised above earlier structures; the citadel was built over the Hospitaller centre. Excavation and conservation have since exposed the halls below the present city, preserving within one site the Crusader occupation of Acre, its recovery by al-Ashraf Khalil and the Ottoman rebuilding that shaped the Old City visible today.