AMERICAN COLONY HOTEL
Following the great Chicago fire of 1871 and a transatlantic shipwreck in which their four daughters perished in 1873, the American couple Anna and Horatio Spafford decided to leave the United States. In 1881, they founded a utopian Christian society in Jerusalem, dubbed the American Colony. The community was later joined by Swedish Christians. The building they chose to establish the colony was a former Ottoman palace. The society engaged in philanthropic work among Jerusalem's inhabitants, regardless of religious affiliation: opening soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages, as well as carrying out other charitable projects.
As early as 1902, the Spaffords and their descendants began welcoming pilgrims and official travellers. During the First World War, the premises served as a hospice and neutral refuge. Over the following decades, the premises were transformed into an international luxury hotel. The hotel survived a series of wars, maintaining a neutral position: situated on the border between Palestine and Israel, the hotel continues to be managed by descendants of the founders and to welcome all communities. A symbol of diplomacy and peaceful coexistence, the American Colony Hotel was selected in 1992 to bring together representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the State of Israel to begin the talks that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords.
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