Ticho House 1930, Where the Eyes Saw and the Heart Painted, Another Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, a city where every stone has a story and every door has a resident with an even more fascinating tale, there are houses that simply cannot slip under the radar. One of them is Ticho House, a Jerusalem building from the 19th century that managed to hold within its walls a renowned eye doctor, a celebrated painter, and some of the city’s most beautiful secrets.
The house was built in 1864 and was one of the first structures erected outside the walls of the Old City, back when Jerusalem was still a sleepy Ottoman town with narrow alleys, bustling markets, and very few parking options (just like today, only without the cars).
The building sits between Rav Kook Street and Harav Agan Street, right in the heart of the city.
It was built as a grand residence (at least by the standards of that time), with a beautiful inner courtyard, thick stone walls, vaulted ceilings, and windows that captured the Jerusalem light from every direction.
A private orchard surrounded the house, filled with fruit trees, vegetable patches, and flower beds.
The house was constructed by the Nashashibi family, a wealthy Muslim Jerusalem family, until it passed into Jewish hands and was purchased by Dr. Abraham Albert Ticho and his wife Anna in 1924.
Dr. Ticho was nothing less than a medical legend in Jerusalem. A brilliant eye doctor who arrived in the city from Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the 20th century with a simple yet vital mission: to help Jerusalem’s residents see better. In those days, eye diseases were rampant, largely due to dust, intense sunlight, and the city’s challenging sanitary conditions, which caused relentless eye infections.Over time, he became one of Jerusalem’s most important physicians and managed the “Ezrat Nashim” Eye Hospital, a crucial medical institution in those days.
Anna Ticho, who was his cousin and later his beloved wife, immigrated with him to the land and knew how to see Jerusalem through her own eyes and transfer its beauty onto paper.
She was a talented painter who fell in love with Jerusalem’s landscapes, and her works, over the years, became an inseparable part of Israel’s artistic scene. If you had wandered through Jerusalem back then, you might have stumbled upon her sitting in a quiet corner, painting the Judean hills, the alleys of Nachlaot, or the lone olive tree standing on a hill.
During the 1929 riots, Dr. Ticho was stabbed by Arabs on his way to his clinic. Following this, he and his wife decided to turn the ground floor of their home into a new eye clinic.
Throughout their lives, their house became a meeting point for intellectuals, writers, artists, and doctors—from Marc Chagall to Martin Buber—and an afternoon tea with the British High Commissioner.
It was a sort of early version of an “intellectual café,” but with far fewer phones and far deeper philosophical and artistic discussions.
When Dr. Ticho passed away in 1960, Anna continued living and working in the house until her death in 1980.
Shortly before her passing, Anna was awarded the Israel Prize for Painting.
In her will, she bequeathed the house, along with all her artworks, to the Israel Museum, out of a desire to preserve her and her husband’s legacy and as a tribute and love for Jerusalem. Since then, the house has become a museum open to the public, featuring rotating exhibitions, an art library, and a magical courtyard that allows every visitor to feel a little like part of history.
Ticho House is more than just another old building in Jerusalem. It tells the story of a developing city, of people from around the world who came to it and made a difference, and of the ability to blend medicine, art, and the enchantment of Jerusalem.
It’s a place where every visitor can feel a bit of the past, a lot of the present, and dream about the future as the Ticho couple once did.
Today, the building serves partly as a museum with exhibitions of Anna Ticho’s paintings and those of other artists who depict Jerusalem, alongside rooms filled with the history of the Ticho couple, including furniture and other objects, a charming Jerusalem garden, and, in recent years, a high-quality restaurant.
This is our Jerusalem, a city where every stone tells a story.
A green and blooming orchard alongside patients arriving on Lambretta motor scooters with eye conditions, the British High Commissioner in casual conversation with Israel’s artists of the time, a boundless love story between a couple, and a true love for Jerusalem and its people.
Shabbat Shalom to those near and far from Jerusalem,
May all the hostages return home soon, together with the soldiers of the IDF,
May we merit true unity among us, and may peace come to Israel.
Photo: Ticho House Archive.
