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Panoramic Views > Mount Lebanon > Baabda > Baabda and Seray


Baabda, House of the Slave

We see here a lovely coastal hill, a thousand yards from the sea, overlooking Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon. It is covered with verdure, for there are palm trees, almond trees, olive trees and fruit trees of other kinds as well. Clothed in bloom of different colors in season, it reminds one of the hill of Zouk in Kesserwan, with its dwellings scattered half hidden in the vegetation. Life is pleasant on these slopes, worthy of the inspiration of poets and of artists who come to paint, and attracting all who love sublime beauty.

As a result of the present-day urban development, Baabda has become an extension, an outer suburb, of the capital Beirut, stretching twenty miles away. Baabda, like Byblos, is the name of the town which is situated in the area and is the administrative center of the sector of the same name. The town has a history covering a very beautiful region formed of a main hill with several smaller hills, none higher than four thousand feet. The name is of Aramaic origin and means literally the house of Abed the Slave, perhaps because the church was named Saint Abda’s after its patron saint.

At Baabda there are many interesting ancient remains and more modern monuments. There is a cave in a rocky face on the north-eastern side, woods and orchards, capitals of columns, Roman remains, a fountain of hewn stone in the middle of the town, and a cellar of Emir Melhem Shehab. There is a number of churches, including that of Mar Abda built on the site of an old Roman temple and the church of the Shehab family. In the valley one notices the arches of the Zobeida aqueduct, which used to supply water to Beirut.

There are several hospitals, convents, monasteries, and even universities. The University City of the Lebanese University includes all the Faculties and there is the University of the Antonine Fathers. There are hotels, restaurants, cultural and sports clubs, the residences of prominent personalities, palaces, and luxurious modern villas, al of these together making Baabda thoroughly urbanized and much in demand in view of the demographic development of the country south of Beirut, leading to important economic and industrial activity. With the medical centers, offices and state institutions, administrations and ministries, there are many centers of activity. The infrastructure is completely modern, particularly the communications network which includes the surrounding Beirut-Damascus high road. But there is more to say.

From the time of the emirs to our own day, Baabda has been the most important administrative center of Lebanon. The Shehabs had their palaces in Baabda. The Ottoman Turkish administrators known as the Mutassarefs made it their capital in the nineteenth century, particularly Wasaa Pasha, who restored the Great Seraglio at the top of the hill. He added two new wings to the original building, so allowing space for the quarters of the police and gendarmerie, the administrative offices, the law court, the prison, and the governor’s quarters. All the official establishments were provided for, Finance, and the commerce, property, land and census registers.

The Seraglio is built in an eclectic style, with an architecture inspired by the eighteenth century. There is a central court, two stairways giving access to the different floors, a basement, offices and surrounding terraces roofed with red tiles. However, all this old construction is no longer enough to accommodate the municipal offices of Baabda. Modern times have required the construction of further extensions.

There are many foreign embassies at Baabda, often including the ambassadors’ residences.

History follows its course in Baabda, where there is the most important administrative center of all Lebanon, the Presidency of the Republic. After World War I and Independence, the Presidency was set up at Kantari in Beirut, and then moved to Zouk in Kesserwan and afterwards to Sinn el-Fil in the Beirut outskirts.

During this period the government bought an extensive plot of land covering a mountain to the north-east of Baabda, so as to use it as the site for the Presidential Residence. This was built and inaugurated during the nineteen-sixties, and here the President and the ministers meet to deal with affairs of state. As for Parliament, this remains at the Etoile (Star) Square in the center of the capital. The Presidency of the Republic at Baabda comprises several blocks of buildings adapted to modern requirements and is surrounded by woods and main roads on all sides.

Baabda is an integral and living part of Lebanon as a whole. One may visit the town despite the traffic jams and pause to do one’s shopping and then visit the market and commercial centers. During the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries Baabda was a major center of silk production, with cultivation of mulberry trees and raising of silkworms for the industry.

Baabda is controlled by a very active municipal authority. The sub-prefecture of which it is the capital extends from the seashore to the heights of Mount Knaiysseh at six thousand feet. Most of the inhabitants are university graduates and form an administrative elite for Lebanon. Many hold high positions and many have emigrated.

Joseph Matar - Translation from the French: Kenneth Mortimer

- The Seray of Baabda: >> View Movie << (2017-10-17)

 

 


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