Damascus Gate by Bonfils Porte de Damas ca 1870

Porte de Damas by Felix Bonfils ca. 1870. This is an original vintage Albumen print on a thin sheet of paper with sepia color and slightly glossy surface, signed in the negative. Showing the very ornate Damascus Gate in the northern walls of the old city of Jerusalem. At the veery right of the picture the large dome belongs to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This photograph is documented in the list of Felix Bonfils Photographs in the Department of Rare Books, Princeton University Library, Box 16, folder11, (http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?id=ark:/88435/sj1391972#series1subseriesE). The prolific photographer Félix Bonfils was born on 8 March 1831 in France. In 1867 he moved to Beirut with his wife Lydie (b. 1837), and son Adrien (b. 1861) and set up a photographic studio. Bonfils published many albums focusing on specific regions or themes from various sites along the eastern Mediterranean. Bonfils died in 1885.