The last twelve years of Baha’u’llah’s life were spent in this house in Acre even though he was still formally a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire. He stayed in the mansion until his death in his seventy-fifth year in Acre in 1892. His shrine is located next to this house. The whole area was called Al-Bahjá (Place of Delight).
An outstanding example of Ottoman architecture, the ground floor of the mansion has an array of spacious rooms with high ceilings, surrounded on the north, west and south sides by an arcade and a walled garden. The room occupied by Baha’u’llah lies in the southeast corner.
This large and imposing building overlooking the Mediterranean sea occupies an area of 740 square meters. It was built around 1870 as a summer palace by ‘Údí Khammár, a wealthy merchant of ‘Akká and the original owner of what is now known as the House of ‘Abbúd. It was originally a garden built by Suleiman Pasha the ruler of Acre for his daughter Fatimih. However within less than a decade following an epidemic his family fled away. `Udi Khammar’s tomb is still to be seen in the southeast corner of the main compound wall.
Abdu’l-Bahá first rented, and later purchased, the mansion for Bahá’u’lláh and the Bahá’í holy family to live in. The Mansion is now a Bahá’í pilgrimage site.
