Taglit – The house at 26 Zionut Street, Haifa

Ilan Greiber, a historian who lives in Haifa says: "About two months ago as part of the tours of the Association for the History of Haifa, I arrived at a house at 26 Zion Street in Haifa. On the tour I met the historian Shay Perkash."

Shay Farkash Engages in building conservation, studies color and knows how to diagnose a wall and its colors. "Walls are like a book, peel back the layers, it's like pages, each layer is a history of the house." The house was abandoned, Shai's team stands on scaffolding, uncovering the pictures on the ceiling of the house and restoring the paintings.

In the years 1890-1900, a Lebanese tycoon built the house. He invites a neighbor of his, a Templar painter Hagar on Hagfen Street, his name is Johannes Pender. Johannes is an amazing artist, a very talented painter. In those days, the fashion and culture of the Templars who were neighbors, contributed a lot of information and their knowledge.

Ilan Greiber, historian says:

In the middle of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire decides to make reforms, Tanzimat (in Turkish), in order to try and improve the situation. At the same time, Haifa's status is increasing, Haifa is becoming known as the city of the future, a city with extraordinary economic potential. Very high level artists worked there. In carpentry, stone, paints, paintings and marble. All the paintings painted in marble are of very high quality. A team of talented people who created these designs, learned the profession at a very high level. Those who reached the age of 18 at the time, advanced to manage groups of young people and establish additional teams.

According to Shay, who is the expert on restoration and color, in Haifa there were dozens of houses with a similar style of paintings, rich houses. Unfortunately, almost most of them were destroyed or paintings were lost.
The restoration is not simple, it is not possible to restore 100% nor 95%. To produce the product that people 120 years ago, is not simple at all. A painter in those days painted a picture for two weeks. These days the team has been working for about 6 months and are still trying to recover. Shai is an expert and therefore, even Bezalel graduates have the desire to work with him.

The contractor renovating the house at 26 Tshebi says: "This house is a building that gathered and embraced all the beauty of Haifa. Haifa is a great city. There are no differences. All ethnic groups live together like one family. They live in peace with each other."