Damascus (AFP)
Strolling through the alleys of old Damascus, Rania Kataf seeks to immortalize historic districts and traditional homes.
Equipped with her professional camera, she takes photos to raise awareness on social networks about heritage preservation.
For years, this 35-year-old woman has been working to create a digital archive to preserve the memory of a multi-century Damascus.
“I was inspired by European photographers who documented their cities during World War II,” says Ms. Kataf.
"Architects then succeeded in rebuilding, in part thanks to this work".
In a country at war since 2011, the Syrian capital Damascus has been relatively untouched by the devastating fighting, compared to other metropolises, Aleppo in the north, or Homs in the center.
But it was shaken by deadly car bombings and rocket fire from surrounding rebel strongholds then reconquered by the authorities.
Some traditional houses, often organized on two floors around an interior courtyard, were damaged or abandoned by their owners during the conflict.
Several families displaced by the fighting then took refuge there, sharing the large rooms and sometimes forced to modify the structure.
Since 2016, Ms. Kataf has been running the "Humans of Damascus" group on Facebook, now bringing together 22,000 heritage-loving users, who share photos of old Damascus or even their own interiors.
- "Similar spell" -
His commitment is invaluable.
His photos are now used for the restoration of an Ottoman palace carried out by the authorities and private partners to make it a cultural institution.
The house belonged to the Qouwatli family, who gave Syria its first president after independence.
Flats collapsed in 2016 after rebel rocket fire fell near the house.
Bad weather and its abandonment will have done the rest.
In a reception hall with walls richly decorated with friezes and geometric patterns, workers carry round beams adorned with vivid green and gold paintings to reinstall them on the ceiling.
Notebook in hand, her professional camera slung over her shoulder, Ms. Kataf walks among them, taking a picture, discussing the ornaments of a window.
A nutritionist by training, a graduate of the American University of Beirut, in 2017 she trained in Italy on heritage preservation.
It was by seeing the devastation inflicted by the war on the heritage of her country that she mobilized.
"The old towns of Homs and Aleppo were destroyed, without having been documented," she laments.
"I was afraid that old Damascus would suffer a similar fate."
In 2013, Unesco decided to add Syria's six World Heritage sites, including the old cities of Damascus and Aleppo and the ruins of ancient Palmyra, to its list of World Heritage in Danger.
Today the fighting has decreased in intensity in a Syria where the power of Bashar al-Assad has reconquered the surroundings of Damascus and more than 70% of the national territory.
But other dangers weigh on the heritage.
The buildings "risk losing their identity because of for-profit projects" but also "abandonment and oblivion", fears Ms. Kataf.
- "Living in a museum" -
One of the homes photographed by Ms. Kataf as part of her documentation project is Raëd Jabri's family home.
Two decades ago the owner turned it into a restaurant, while preserving its character.
In the middle of the trees in the courtyard, the tables are set up around the white stone fountain.
The house "was on the verge of collapsing and required large sums for its restoration", explains the sixty-year-old.
The income from the restaurant, very popular with tourists before the war, allowed it to do the work.
A psychologist converted to business, Samir Ghadban devotes a devouring passion to his 19th century house, with marble floors, luxurious crystal chandeliers and wooden furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl.
Ms. Kataf has been there too.
In a small summer living room opening onto one of the two interior courtyards, the walls are decorated with carved friezes showing verses from the Koran.
He has been living with his wife for 12 years in this house where Emir Abdelkader is said to have lived, hero of the first Algerian resistance, exiled by the French and a refugee in Syria, says Mr. Ghadban.
"I have the feeling that I live in a museum and not a house."
© 2020 AFP