Here we have a double name, that of a typical Lebanese
village. Hasra IL means the Dwelling of God and
is of Phoenician origin. This village is a pleasant
one in the Caza of Jbeil- Byblos in Mount Lebanon,
on the western mountain slope facing the Mediterranean
and offers splendid views of the sunset which might
even be called sublime.
Hosrayel is roughly five miles north of Byblos and
nearly thirty miles from the Lebanese capital Beirut,
at a little over six hundred feet above sea level.
The road begins with a sharp climb over eight or
ten S-turns which have a certain picturesque charm
with their houses deep in flowers, shrubs and vines.
In this village where olive and almond trees and
vines cover all the terraces, interspersed with
clumps of oak, pine and cypress, one finds a heritage
going back to our ancestors who were sturdy and
hard-working, who faced difficulties, poverty and
famine under the rigors of Ottoman occupation, and
who put up their homes and hewed their terraces,
where the good fertile soil was gathered in so as
to be planted and cultivated for harvests in order
to assure bare existence and daily needs.
Residences and houses belonged to a class of better-off
persons in the region. The ordinary peasant house
had a ground floor for the cattle and the poultry
and an upper floor with a large square room giving
onto a terrace. The kitchen was outside the house
with a stock of firewood. In the evening the farmer
would withdraw indoors in order to go to rest after
having passed the day toiling the fields.
Some very particular houses draw one’s attention
and deserve some study for their history, those
who have once lived in them, their structure, and
their conservation. One of these residences has
belonged to Monsieur Joe Ashkar. One of these residences
is that of Monsieur Joe Ashkar and of Monsieur Michel
Charrière, the present owners of the house,
these two being both artists and architects. This
house of an area of more than 700 square yards is
built on a plot of well over 10,000 with an annex
to the house and a small chapel in the garden. It
was built in the eighteenth century by a notable;
in the twentieth century it became the property
of the Helou family, their name being common allover
Lebanon. If one looks back over the baptismal registers
of the village church, one is sure to find the names
of the heirs who have been in charge, a house two
hundred years old. Several generations have occupied
the house, most of them in times of difficulty,
so the house fell little by little into a state
of ruin. Formerly, richer houses were built of stone
with stone arcades, and with tree trunks and adobe
in the case of poorer ones. Cement and iron were
not available as reinforcement or for use in the
foundations. It was only in 1860 that such new materials
together with red brick tiles came on the market.
The Residence was seemingly restored just once before
the present owners bought it in 1991 and undertook
its restoration a year later. The house comprises
two stories surrounded by large trees. There is
a second entrance on the west side, opening onto
the kitchen and services.
The Residence is in the form of a U, as seen in
the convents, with an inner patio where social life
can be more intimate. At the end of the nineteenth
century the occupant had the inner patio covered
with red tiles, so transforming the whole house.
This patio has now become a large room, thus changing
the whole conception and functioning of the house.
On such a basis, Mr. Joe Ashkar and Monsieur Michel
Charrière got a team of specialist renovators
from Paris to do up the house. They gave new life
to the whole to make a modern residence meeting
the demands of the twenty-first century. Such a
residence demands a lot in the way of both interior
and exterior upkeep.
A wall ten feet high surrounds the Residence, together
with most beautiful hundred-year-old olive trees
and eucalyptus trees. They give a new life to the
kitchen, standing like sentinels guarding this rare
treasure and let every detail, every stone and water
basin tell a story. Whoever enters, whether through
the kitchen or by the main door finds magic in the
woodwork, the stone, the glass the iron, the forms,
the perspectives and the colors, giving rise to
deep emotions.
Once one is inside, one cannot make up one’s mind
which to contemplate and admire the most, the furniture
with its style, the desks, the carpets, the ceramic
plates, the assorted antiques, the ornate ceilings,
the doors and windows, the rooms surrounding the
main hall, the seats, the candelabras, the armchairs,
or the Turkish bath, in fact a collection which
brings together all the East. So we behold scenes
from the Thousand-and-0ne-Nights or in a luminous
and mysterious Heritage Museum? We are visiting
a unique and unforgettable museum which is a reflection
of the soul of the occupants.
Joseph Matar
Translated from the French by Kenneth Mortimer
- Residence
at Hosrayel:
>> View
Movie << (2019-12-11)
