Sarona is a restored German Templer colony in the heart of Tel Aviv, transformed into one of the city’s most popular culinary, cultural, and entertainment destinations. The colony, founded in 1871 by the same Templer movement that built the German Colony in Haifa and the German Colony in Jerusalem, preserves over 30 original stone buildings from the 19th century, making it the largest collection of restored Templer architecture in Israel.
Templer Colony
The Templers (Tempelgesellschaft) were a German Protestant sect from Wurttemberg who believed that building model Christian communities in the Holy Land would hasten the Second Coming of Christ. They arrived in the Land of Israel in the 1860s and established seven colonies across the country. Sarona, founded north of Jaffa, was one of their most successful ventures. The settlers drained swamps, planted orchards, built stone houses with red-tiled roofs, and established agricultural industries including a winery, a flour mill, and citrus groves that became models for the Jewish agricultural settlements that followed.
Buildings
The Templer houses at Sarona are distinctive: solid stone construction, red Marseilles roof tiles imported from France, biblical inscriptions carved above the doorways in German, shuttered windows, and gardens with trees that the original settlers planted over 150 years ago. Over 30 of these buildings have been preserved and restored, and walking among them is walking through a 19th-century German village transplanted to the Middle East. Several buildings retain their original inscriptions: “Gott ist die Liebe” (God is Love), “Der Herr ist nahe” (The Lord is Near), and other verses that expressed the settlers’ faith.
Dark Chapter
In the 1930s, many Sarona Templers joined the Nazi Party, and the colony became a center of Nazi activity in the Land of Israel. Swastika flags flew from buildings that bore biblical inscriptions. The British interned the Templers during World War II, and after Israeli independence, their properties were confiscated. The colony served as a military and government compound for decades: the Kirya, Israel’s military headquarters (the equivalent of the Pentagon), occupies the land immediately adjacent to the restored colony. The transition from German millenarian colony to Nazi outpost to Israeli military headquarters to gourmet food market is one of the more surreal journeys in the history of any piece of real estate.
Visitor Center
A small museum and visitor center in one of the restored buildings tells the Templer story through photographs, documents, and personal objects. The exhibition covers the founding of the colony, the agricultural innovations, the daily life of the settlers, the Nazi period, the British internment, and the transition to Israeli use. The building itself, with its thick stone walls and original architectural details, is as much a part of the exhibition as the objects inside it.
Sarona Market
The Sarona Market (opened 2015) is an indoor gourmet food market with over 90 vendors selling artisanal cheeses, fresh bread, craft beer and cocktails, sushi, chocolate, spices, meat, fish, and prepared foods from cuisines around the world. The market has become one of Tel Aviv’s most popular food destinations, drawing locals and tourists who come to eat, drink, and browse in a space that combines 19th-century architecture with 21st-century gastronomy. The market is open daily, including Friday evenings and Saturdays (unusual in Israel), and the combination of food, architecture, and atmosphere makes it one of the best indoor experiences in the city.
Gardens and Public Spaces
The areas between the restored buildings have been landscaped as public gardens and plazas, with lawns, shade trees (many of them original Templer plantings), playgrounds, and water features. The outdoor spaces host concerts, markets, and cultural events, and on weekends the complex fills with families. The Sarona development has become a model for heritage-based urban renewal, showing how historic buildings can be preserved and given new life without being turned into museums.
Visit with Hoshen Tours
Sarona combines Templer history with Tel Aviv food culture. Hoshen Tours walks the restored buildings, reads the inscriptions, tells the Templer story from faith to fascism, and arranges tastings in the market.