Beirut residents determined to save heritage lost to blast

 For past dece, art collector Nabil Debs has been working on turning his 19th century ancestral home in a historic neighborhood of Beirut to a hotel and art gallery. He planned to open it to public in mid-August.

Within seconds, his lifelong dream came crashing down, along with two-story building’s stone face and front balcony as a massive explosion tore through Beirut, shearing off faces, blasting holes in buildings, doors, stones and shattering glass across capital.

Aug. 4 blast resulting from nearly 3,000 tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrates igniting at port of Beirut killed more than 180 people and wounded nearly 6,000. It also damd thousands of buildings, including dozens of charming Ottoman and French mandate-era structures which h been among few survivors of a years-old construction frenzy replacing tritional houses with modern buildings. y include old homes, restaurants, museums and churches.

In streets of two Beirut historic neighborhoods, Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael, workers are erecting scaffolding to support buildings that have stood for more than a century - w at risk of collapse.

Among m is house of Debs, who says he is more determined to go ahe with his project, called Arthaus, that consists of 25 rooms. Days after explosion, after he’d recovered from shock and workers started revation works. w he plans inauguration for mid-September.

“We have been working on this project for last 10 years. For us it is a labor of love,” said Debs, standing in a yard between his ancestral red-brick house, which was built in 1860, and ar family home built in 1780. “We love project, we love Beirut and we love Leban and that’s what we are.”

day of blast, Debs was at house. He stepped outside into backyard with a friend who wanted to smoke a cigarette. y were lucky. H y gone to front, whole face would have fallen on m. y miraculously escaped without a scratch.

“It was a horror story,” Debs said.

He estimates his losses to be at least $250,000 and could reach $1.5 million, as some art pieces including sculptures were damd.

Naji Raji, an activist and spokesman for Save Beirut Herit, said blast damd more than 600 historic buildings in Beirut, of which about 40 are at risk of collapse. He said out of 40 buildings, work has begun to support 17 of m. Raji said some estimates put cost of revating old buildings at about $300 million.

revation work is being carried out by Beirut Herit Initiative, a coalition that includes among ors U.N. culture ncy UNESCO, French embassy and architects syndicate, Raji said. state is largely absent, apart from producing licenses for work.

Many of buildings destroyed in blast were proud holdouts. Since end of 15-year civil war in 1990, many old buildings have been demolished and replaced by modern high rises, as speculators stepped in to make fortunes. Since blast occurred re have been reports of middlemen scouting destroyed neighborhoods and making offers to buy old buildings.

That appears to have provoked a determination by owners to save ir buildings.

A giant banner placed on a damd historic building res in Arabic and English: “We are staying.” Ar banner hanged on a street in Gemmayzeh res: “Our history is t for sale.”

“National herit should be protected. It is very important herit for identity of country,” UNESCO’s chief Audrey Azoulay told journalists in Beirut on Thursday. She ded that UNESCO launched a campaign titled “Li Beirut,” or for Beirut, and called on states, private sector and individuals to donate money.

She called for preserving historic districts of Beirut through laws that prevent selling buildings by taking vant of weak owners.

Earlier this month, caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni issued a decree preventing sale of any historic building without permission from Culture Ministry, a move that aims to prevent “exploitation.”

In Gemmayzeh, Aida Qazoun, 80, moved around her four-room apartment on ground floor of a century-old three-story building as workers fixed broken windows and cemented holes in walls.

She returned from her son’s home in mountains, where she moved for two weeks after blast along with her daughter who suffered an arm injury from flying glass and who also returned home.

“I got married and moved into this apartment 60 years ago. I will stay here,” said Qazoun as she prepared a pot of Arabic coffee for workers to take a rest during a hot and humid summer day.