RAMLEH. – City of Palestine southeast of Jaffa. Arab writers attribute the city’s foundation to the Umayyad caliph Sulajmān (716), who intended to create an Arab capital of Palestine. It was inhabited predominantly by Muslims, but also by Jews and Christians. The minaret built at that time was completed with the columns that the Christians had prepared for their church. From this period there remains a vaulted cistern popularly called that of St. Helena.
In the 12th century the Crusaders identified the city with Arimathea (v.) and attributed great antiquity to II. On the ruins of an ancient building they erected the great basilica
(fot. Laboratorio Etnografico Terra Santa)
RAMLEH - View.
of St John, excellently preserved to the present day, although converted into a mosque. Since R. was an important point on the Jaffa–Jerusalem road, which could not be travelled in a single day, all the more because pilgrims wished also to visit nearby Lydda (v.), the Franciscans had already built a Hospice there in 1395, which remained in operation until our own times. It may be said that almost all pilgrims to the Holy Land (v. PELLEGRINAGGIO) lodged there. In 1799 Napoleon, engaged in the siege of Jaffa, established his headquarters there, and after his departure the Turks took revenge by destroying the building. R. has its watchtower, called “of the 40,” built in 1318. In 1948 the city passed to the State of Israel, and of its present 13,000 inhabitants the great majority are Jewish.