Planning and architecture of modern Beersheba: between the celestial and infernal

In Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino describes Beersheba as a city with two projections: the celestial city that its inhabitants honor, and the infernal one – the receptacle of everything they renounce. In contrast to the other cities in the book, terrestrial Beersheba is real, but like its literary counterpart, it also has two projections – celestial and infernal. This article addresses these projections as articulated in the planning of the city and its neighborhoods, and particularly in its public buildings. In a similar manner to Calvino, it is argued that precisely what its inhabitants deem infernal inheres the celestial aspect as well.