In Lebanon, 9 months after the port explosion, Beirut's heritage in danger

The explosion of August 4 could deal the final blow to the surviving houses because with the economic crisis, their owners no longer have the means to rebuild them.

© Thibault Lefébure / RFI

Text by: Noé Pignède Follow

4 min

In Beirut, residents are struggling to reconstruct the heritage destroyed during the explosion of the port on August 4, 2020. The blast heavily damaged hundreds of “Beirut” houses, an architecture that blends Eastern and Western traditions.

In the midst of an economic and political crisis, Lebanon no longer has the means to restore what nevertheless constitutes the cultural and historical soul of its capital.

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With our correspondent in Beirut,

“This was my parents' room here. My father was sitting in this room during the explosion. You can still see the traces of his blood on the walls ”.

Christelle Chaoul shows us around what remains of her family home. On August 4, the explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrates stored in a shed at the port, a few hundred meters from her home,

shattered the old stone walls

. The colorful stained glass windows in the pointed windows were shattered. The marble balconies have collapsed. The ceilings of this 19th century house can only hold up thanks to dozens of steel beams. 

“It's unlivable.

No one from the government or the state took the initiative to come and see us to find out how we were doing, if we had enough money to go and live elsewhere or if we could rebuild our house ” 

Christelle indignantly.

Eight months after the tragedy that ravaged her neighborhood of Mar Michael, this young mother is trying by all means to rebuild a family heritage passed down for four generations.

My father was born in this room.

This house is everything for him, she

explains. 

These walls are our roots, our identity

”. 

Restore neighborhood homes with private donations

Old stones, fragments of Lebanese architectural history, that real estate speculation and the lack of standards had begun to tear apart: in recent decades, many traditional buildings have been razed and replaced by modern buildings.

The explosion of August 4

could well deal the final blow to the surviving houses, because with the economic crisis their owners no longer have the means to rebuild them

. "

Our money is blocked in the bank,

"

grumbles Christelle, whose renovation project is estimated at 150,000 dollars. 

To raise this sum, the young woman was able to count on the

Beirut Heritage Initiative

,

which restores the homes of the district thanks to private donations, in particular from the diaspora.

"

With very little means, we are doing the job that the municipality should be doing,

"

assures Fadlo Dagher, one of the founders. Since day one, this architect, whose home was also destroyed by the explosion, has been putting his know-how at the service of Beirutis. “ 

We want to see this city live, and for it to live, its inhabitants must not leave it. So we have to rehabilitate their houses. "

It is estimated that $ 300 million would be needed to rebuild the hundreds of traditional buildings damaged by the August 4 blast.

Funds that arrive in small quantities, in a Lebanon in the midst of a financial and political crisis.

The architect Fadlo Dagher, one of the founders of the Beirut Heritage Initiative, next to Christelle Chaoul, in Beirut.

© Thibault Lefébure / RFI

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