Shai Agnon House Museum

The Shai Agnon House Museum is the home of the Nobel Prize-winning writer for literature, one of the greatest Jewish writers of our time. Shmuel Josef Agnon lived and wrote in this house until he was forty. It was here that he wrote the greatest novels of 20th-century Jewish literature: A Simple History, Yesterday and the Day Before Yesterday, Shira, and dozens of other works that continue to amaze the imagination of many readers around the world.

The house-museum is located in the area of Talpiyot, which has grown significantly in recent years. Nearby is a high mountain from which you can see the Old City, the Palace of David and the Jaffa Gate. Perhaps it was the proximity to history and the opportunity to look into the past of his people that prompted Agnon to choose this place for life and creativity.

The house itself was built in 1931 by architect Fritz Corenberg, who lived next door to the writer, and looks quite typical for buildings of that time. But many details allow you to understand the history of this place. For example, barred windows remind of the riots that occurred here in 1929.

After Agnon's death in 1970, Mordechai Ish-Shalom, who was mayor of Jerusalem from 1956 to 1959, initiated the opening of the house to the general public. In the early eighties, the house was renovated in accordance with the main purpose - the original bedrooms, kitchen and family dining room were converted into lecture rooms and a conference room.