Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH)

About Augusta Victoria Compound is a church-hospital complex located on the southern side of Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, one of six hospitals in the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network. The compound was built in 1907–1914 by the Empress Augusta Victoria Foundation as a center for the German Protestant community in Ottoman Palestine, in addition to the slightly older Church of the Redeemer from Jerusalem's Old City. Apart from the hospital, today the complex also includes the German Protestant Church of the Ascension with a c. 50 metre high belltower, a meeting centre for pilgrims and tourists, an interreligious kindergarten and a café, as well as the Jerusalem branch of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology. Throughout much of its history, the compound was used first and foremost as a hospital, either by the military (during the First and Second World Wars and during Jordanian rule), or for Palestinian refugees and general public (from 1950 until today), and at times also as a government or military headquarters (1915–1927). Today, Augusta Victoria Hospital provides specialty care for Palestinians from across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with services including a cancer center, a dialysis unit, and a pediatric center. It is the second largest hospital in East Jerusalem, as well as the sole remaining specialized care unit located in the West Bank or Gaza Strip.