Yvonne Sursock Cockeren, the patron of the Lebanese arts, cultural and architectural heritage, died at the age of 98, after being injured in the Beirut port explosion last month.

With great sadness, she was mourned by a statement issued by the Sursock Museum, which she helped establish, indicating her great effort in protecting the country's architectural heritage throughout her life.

Mrs. Cockren (a royal title she inherited after her marriage to Sir Desmond Cockran in 1946) died on Monday, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the State of Lebanon, and was a pioneer in raising awareness of the Lebanese architectural and cultural heritage.

She is the only daughter of Alfred Bey Sursock, one of the notables of Lebanon and his Italian wife, Donna Maria Teresa, and she founded the Association for the Protection of Natural Sites and Old Buildings in Lebanon and held its presidency from 1960 to 2002.

In the Beirut port explosion, 190 people were killed, about 6 thousand were injured, and entire neighborhoods, including many of her family's homes, were destroyed.

Yvonne chaired the committee of the Sursock Museum from 1960 to 1966, and had a vital role in its development during its early years.

The blast severely damaged its palace, which is one of the city's architectural landmarks.

Data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) indicate severe damage to 640 historic buildings as a result of the explosion, of which 60 buildings are at risk of collapse.

Damages inside the Sursock Museum following the Beirut explosion (Al-Jazeera)

Damages to the ancient museum

At the St Nicolas stairway upward, the scene of Beirut's heritage buildings becomes evident as if they had become with or without deformed roofs, while the red bricks (floors) of some of these buildings turned into flying stones, and upon reaching the Sursock Heritage neighborhood, the extent of the destruction of old houses and giant wooden gates appears.

Inside the Sursock Museum - which was built by his aristocratic family in 1912, before turning into a museum in 1961, and then returning to open its doors in 2015 after 8 years of restoration - a phrase "pastel" or "glitter" is written on one of its walls that tell stories of his artworks, pieces and sculptures. Life. "

However, the "glamor" of this place has diminished after it has been cleared of all artistic contents, and its corners have turned into a space for filling and shattered glass.

In the outer "white" Sursock courtyard, the director of the museum, Zeina Arida, sat exhausted from the destruction, and said to Al-Jazeera Net - days after the explosion - "moments before the terrible explosion sounded, I was with 3 colleagues inside the underground library in the museum. We felt that something strange was happening. At first they did not care, then we took cover in a place without windows so that it would not fall on us, so we were saved. "

And after the museum’s administration removed about 150 artifacts - no less than 25 were damaged, and placed them in bunkers - the force of the explosion smashed underground iron gates up to 16 meters deep, and no wooden door remained intact.

Zeina regrets, saying, "We could not estimate the size of our financial loss in the museum. We have returned to zero and it needs millions of dollars after its restoration cost more than 16 million US dollars, and there are irreparable damages, while the priority is to strengthen it and repair its windows before winter."

Restoration attempts

The Beirut explosion destroyed hundreds of heritage buildings in Beirut, which amounted to about 640 historical buildings, and 60 of them are at risk of complete collapse, and they are among at least 8 thousand buildings damaged by the explosion, according to figures from the Antiquities Directorate of the Lebanese Ministry of Culture.

These heritage buildings - which are dwellings, museums, art halls, and religious sites - are mostly located in historical neighborhoods such as Gemmayzah, Achrafieh, Tabaris, Mar Mikhael and Karantina, and in Zuqaq Al-Blat and Mina Al-Hosn, and are built back to the Ottoman era and the French mandate and are of a modern architectural heritage.

The Lebanese Antiquities Directorate estimated the initial total cost of repair and restoration work for these buildings to be at least $ 300 million, but the head of the Beirut Engineers Syndicate, Jad Thabet, estimated in a previous interview with Al-Jazeera Net the real financial value of its cost was 3 times the declared amount, "that is, at least $ 900 million. .