The Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, founded in 1909, was quite quickly interested in offering a part of its studies in the Levant itself: a first caravan to Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt was organised in 1913, with the regular presence of Fr Alexis Mallon in Jerusalem from 1914.

The outbreak of the First World War blocked things for a number of years, and the Jesuit fathers eventually bought and built this property in the years 1925-1927. In the years immediately following, this hill of Jerusalem was transformed with the new King David Hotel (built between 1929 and 1931), the French Consulate (built 1929-1932), and the YMCA (built between 1927 and 1933).

Since July 1927, this house serves as a base for the students and professors of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome as they visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land to study the Bible in its geographical and archaeological context.

Since the 1970s, the Institute has a joint programme for its students with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem [read further], and since 1986, our students can also study at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française.