Hi,
I packed the kids, let Atzva rest, and visited the Castel. This is part of Jannaeus’ wish to visit castels around us (we already visited Apollonia and the casle of Bayt ‘Itab).
For a former Jerusalem resident, the castle was a hill with a very stiff road up to it on the road to Tel-Aviv. When you were thinking of buying a car, you would ask if it could climb the Castel (or you wouldn’t be able to get back to Jerusalem).
The place is called the Castel (the way we pronounce the word castle) and stands for the Crusaders castle of Castellum Belveer (fine view castle in French) that stood here it was conquered and probably demolished by Sultan al-Adilno around 1190s and no remains of it were left.
During the years, a small village was built on top of the hill and was named Al-Qastal after the castle. As I said, it sitted on the main road from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. When the Indenpendence War began it became a site for fierce and bitter fights as part of the war on the road to Jerusalem.
The site moved from one side to the other three times until the soldier of the Palmach took control of it (the Palmach was the elite forces of art of the HaHagana underground army before the IDF). By taking control of it, a key position on the road to Jerusalem was open.
Take Care
Gad
The entrance to the site
The site map
A short 5 minute video at the entrance to the site (we were asked to eat here, and nowhere further in to the site)
National memorial site – the Castel
The Determination station
Abu George’s coffee shop
The fall of Jewish Jerusalem would be a death-blow to the Yishuv” (from David Ben-Gurion’s diary)
The Comradeship station
“At the moment there is one burning question and that is the battle for the road to Jerusalem” (from David Ben-Gurion’s diary)
The leadership station
The fateful night….
“The privates will retreat, the commanders will stay behind to cover them”
The entrance to fighting tunnels on the right, or you can walk straight to top on the road
Fighting tunnels surrounding the top of the hill. Those were dug after the Independence war by the IDF that held the hill as a post against the Arab Legion that set couple of hundreds meters north of it.
Sound and light show inside this bunker which is part of the fighting tunnels
The Fa’za (call to arms) sign looking south east and a view to Bab El-Wad sign looking west signs
Iron cast model of the road the Jerusalem, showing the importance of the Castel and Operation Nahashon (Daring) in Independence war.
Operation Nahashon (Daring)
The flags’ masts on top the hill, covered with memorial stickers of the fallen from the war
The Sandwich Armored Vehicle on the panorama on top of the hill
The names of the fallen in the fights over the site
The ruins of the village mukhtar building on top of the hill
The cave and the video about the fights over the site during the Indenpendence war
The Panorama location, west of the hill
The view from the castle panorama view from the east to the west