The Blue House: A Beiruti Story
On 4th August 2020, an horrific explosion occurred at the port of Beirut. The house known as Medawar 479 suffered major structural damage due to its proximity to the port and the centre of the explosion. This house is a well-known landmark, thanks to its brilliant blue façade and location in Gemmayzeh, an area that developed in the mid-19th century. The Blue House has the typology of the typical Beiruti house: a central hall plan on three levels, surmounted by a pyramidal roof made of Marseille tiles. Due to its architectural importance, the house was chosen by the Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA) and the newly-formed Beirut Heritage Initiative (BHI) for restoration, and the Honor Frost Foundation stepped in to help.
The Foundation is proud to have supported this stunning renovation and, as its base in Lebanon, the Blue House will play an important role in the further development of maritime archaeology in the country, as well as capacity building for heritage, one of the Foundation’s key aims. On 30th March 2023, trustees of the Honor Frost Foundation, the HFF Lebanon team and representatives from ALBA (Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts), as well as the Directorate General of Antiquities, Beirut Heritage Initiative and other guests gathered to celebrate the re-opening of the Blue House.
To celebrate the event, the Foundation created a series of displays, to showcase the restoration of the house, and to focus on the work of the Foundation. Within that was a focus on Honor Frost herself, and her contribution to the field of maritime archaeology in Lebanon. Two projects supported by HFF were also highlighted: the excavations at Anfeh led by Dr Nadine Panayot and Dr Lucy Semaan and the work of at Byblos by Martine Francis-Allouche which builds on the research Honor Frost undertook with the Department of Antiquities. Images of recent activities undertaken by the HFF Lebanon team, led by Dr Lucy Semaan were also shown, along with a film on Honor and the work of HFF Lebanon through a film made by Edmond Tannous.
Additionally, HFF invited ALBA (Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts) to create an exhibition as part of the celebrations marking the re-opening of the Blue House. The students used the opportunity to interact with the building through a series of thought-provoking installations reflecting upon the Blue House and the history of Beirut. This student-led art exhibition, entitled Once Upon a Blue House, remained open until the end of June 2023.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Beirut was a fortified city of some 5,000 inhabitants. Modern Beirut is considered to have been founded by Muhammad Ali following his conquest of Syria in 1831, and the rule he established was highly favourable to merchants.
The port which up to this point had been rudimentary and not deep enough for large ships, was transformed in 1835, when a jetty was built allowing over 300 ships to enter the port, a figure which doubled within a few years. Later, the advent of the steamship was to bring waves of tourists along with the merchants and businessmen. The rapid increase of maritime traffic led to the prosperity of the city and the development of the port and quarters around it particularly from the mid-19th century on.
Quarters such as Ashrafiyeh and Medawar saw extensive construction of high-ceilinged stone structures in a combination of Ottoman and European styles that is particular to the architecture of Beirut.
The Blue House has the typology of the typical Beirut house: a central hall plan on three levels, surmounted by a pyramidal roof made of Marseille tiles. The north façade of the building, facing the port, has a central span opening with three arches, mounted on Carrara marble columns and a projecting balcony. The walls are made of sandstone covered with lime plaster, while internally, there are wooden beams and the floors are topped with Carrara marble tiles. Until the late 20th century, all three floors of the house were used for residential purposes. The restoration process revealed a vaulted room on the ground floor that served as a kitchen during the Ottoman era.
In old photographs of the Medawar quarter, the Blue House can be seen situated close to the shore on St Andrew’s Bay. In 1958 the sea was reclaimed and the Charles Helou Road built in front of the house, separating it from the sea.
In November 2021, Beirut Heritage Initiative started the works on the Blue House, with Joe Kallas (BBHR20) and Distruct Solutions as consultants, and Awaida Contracting and Engineering (ACE) as the contractor. The restoration, using traditional techniques, was completed in August 2022.
The pitched timber roof and half of the north façade were severely damaged by the blast, leading to the collapse of the iconic triple arches with their marble columns and balconies. Moreover this collapse exposed the interior spaces, mainly the central hall, of the first and second floors. To restore it to its original state, the first and second floors’ triple-arched façade had to be completely rebuilt, using the original sandstone and lime based mortar. The whole structure of the house was also enhanced using structural fibre mesh during the plastering process. As for the building’s interior, two of its walls went out of plane due to the thrust of the explosion and were redressed back into place. The majority of the doors were damaged and were either restored or replaced using original reclaimed material.
During the restoration process, salvaged materials found on site were sorted and numbered to be reused in situ. Specialist craftsmen, masons, woodworkers and ironmongers, were employed to bring back the identity of the building keeping to traditional techniques.
- The pitched roof was restored using qotrani (Cedrus Libani) wood and red clay Marseilles tiles
- Recently added cement plaster was removed, and replaced with lime plaster
- The traditional qotrani (Cedrus Libani) beams and planks of the floors and ceilings were restored after numbering and dismantling the marble and terrazzo tiles
- The original facade design, composed of the triple arches and their marble columns and balconies on the first and second floors, was brought back to reflect the authenticity of the original structure
- Openings (windows, doors, shutters and oculus) were restored in qotrani wood, using photo archives to recreate the original designs. Blocked openings discovered after the removal of the cement plaster were reopened and restored back to their original state.
- Murals which had been covered with layers of paint were restored, revealing the original blue paint and beautiful stencilled geometric and floral designs
To celebrate the completion of the restoration of the Blue House, the HFF invited ALBA to take part by organizing a student exhibition in the house itself. The students and their supervisors decided on a simple yet multi-layered strategy regarding the exhibition: the Blue House is to be thought of in its relation with the sea, the horizon, the possibility of an “elsewhere”; its relation with the city around it, the port, the highway, the restaurants and the city life behind it; its relation with its own complex history and its possible futures. This resulted in what we hope to be some thought-provoking interventions, stemming from a tight collaboration between students from different disciplines (Architecture, design, cinema, interior design, visual arts, etc.)
Students :
Nadine KERBAJ – Joud HAMMOUD – Dyma ZORKOT- Andréa TABET – Gaëlle CHALLITA – Ralph BASSIM – Lynn MORKOS – Tarek ZEIDAN – Christophe PROSPER AZAR – Sacha DAHER – Tracy RIZKALLAH – Jad AWAD – Farah KFOURY – Chloé HAJJ – Hrag BALABANIAN – Wadih ABDEL NOUR – Maria SAYEGH
Supervisors:
Rima Kaddissi – Tony Chakar – Gilbert Hage – Karim Kassis – Janine Akl
HONOR FROST
(1917 – 2010)
Honor Frost was an early pioneer of maritime archaeology. Born in Cyprus and orphaned at a young age, she became the ward of London solicitor and art collector Wilfred Evill. On her death, Honor left instructions for the wonderful collection she had inherited to be sold, and the funds used to establish a foundation to support maritime archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean, with particular reference to Lebanon, Cyprus and Syria.
Honor fell in love with diving in Marseilles in the early 1950s when she began training with the Club Alpin Sous-Marin in Cannes. This was to be the beginning of her passion and interest in the world beneath the sea which remained with her all her life. Her first dive was on the wreck of a Roman ship at Antheor, later known as the Chrétienne A, on the south coast of France. She first came to Lebanon in 1957 and began her explorations of the ancient harbours of Byblos, Tyre and Sidon. She was still diving in Byblos in 1998, two years before she died at the age of 92.
Martine Francis-Allouche, September 2023
HONOR FROST’S INVESTIGATIONS IN LEBANON
From the 1960s up until the 1975 Lebanese Civil War, Honor Frost traveled regularly in her Volkswagen Beetle from London to the Levantine coastline, discovering and documenting its history. She continued the research done by Antoine Poidebard, Jean Lauffray, and René Mouterde in southern Lebanon, exploring the ancient harbours of Tyre and Sidon. This was also the start of Frost’s interest in stone anchors, which led her, much later, to work at Byblos. Among her many projects, researching maritime Byblos was among the most important; it was there that she pursued maritime research till the dawn of her passing. Prior to the Civil War, this area had remained terra incognita with only land excavations undertaken by French archeologists Pierre Montet and Maurice Dunand. From 1998 onwards, Frost resumed an investigation of the sea front to locate the much-celebrated Bronze Age harbour of ancient Byblos.
ANCHOR STUDY (1960-2003)
Frost undertook a regional comparative study of stone anchors in the 1960s, comparing Lebanon’s anchors to those in Syria, Cyprus, Crete, and Egypt. In 2003, after a long interval due to the Civil War, the work on stone anchors resumed. Frost also updated the anchors in the collection and worked on a series of seven anchors spotted at offshore anchorages at Byblos, planning a publication entitled «The Stone Anchors of Byblos, revised and compared», – to some extent a comparative dictionary of stone anchors. Since 2022, a new Honor Frost Foundation (HFF) study on stone anchors from Byblos, conducted by the research project “Byblos & the Sea”, continues Frost’s pioneering work, endeavoring to produce a comprehensive catalogue and the complete documentation on anchors found in Byblos and environs.
ANCHORS IN TEMPLES / ANCHOR TYPOLOGY & SYMBOLISM
At Byblos, stone anchors were deliberately placed in temples, such as in the Sacred Enclosure and in the Obelisk Temple, as offerings or ex-votos to the Gods to ensure safety on hazardous sea voyages of sailors.
“That anchors should have symbolic significance is not surprising since, on any sailing ship storm-driven towards the shore, they alone stand between the crew and destruction”. Honor Frost, 1969, in The Stone-Anchors of Byblos.
UGARITIC AND BYBLIAN TEMPLE-TOWERS COMPARED (1998)
In her return to Byblos in 1998, Frost had another major mission on land. It was a comparative study of two similar Bronze Age structures that yielded symbolic single-holed stone weight anchors: the so-called ‘Tower-Temple’ by M. Dunand, in Byblos, and the Baal Hadad Temple-Tower in Ugarit-Ras Shamra (coastal Syria). At Ugarit, the anchors were found inside the structure, whereas at Byblos they formed the lowest steps of a flight of stairs that possibly led to the roof of that very building. Based primarily by its location—a commanding position overlooking the southern Egyptian approaches to Byblos—Frost interpreted this Tower-Temple as a ‘proto-pharos’, or an early type of lighthouse: fire lit on its rooftop could be a navigation signal or a sighting, leading seafarers into safe moorings in Byblos’s Bronze Age harbour.
Since May 2023, based on Frost’s preliminary research, the research project “Byblos & the Sea” has been conducting an architectural study of the Byblian “Temple-Tower” to better understand and identify the building’s function on the acropolis.
ANCHORS’ SHAPE AND FUNCTION (AFTER HONOR FROST)
Stone anchors are often rectangular, triangular or oval slabs of stone pierced with one or more holes and with their shape depending on their intended function and the type of seabed they were designed for.
One-holed anchors: Often used on rocky bottoms, and because of their simple design, these can usually be easily freed when caught between rocks.
Two-holed anchors: Possibly for use on seabed with coralline formation, such as the Red Sea. In addition to the cable hole at their apexes, this type of anchor also has an L-shaped hole at one side near their base for fastening a secondary rope, or trip line, to free them from the seabed in case they become entangled in coral. Even though less common, two-holed anchors are also found in the Mediterranean (Bulgarian coast and southern coast of Turkey) but may be of a later date than Bronze Age anchors.
Three-holed anchor: Designed primarily for sandy seabed. These anchors are provided with three holes, one at the apex for the cable, and two basal holes for fitting a pair of sharpened wooden stakes to prevent the anchor, and along with it the ship, from dragging in strong winds and currents.
THE HARBOUR QUEST
LOCATING THE BRONZE AGE HARBOUR OF BYBLOS (1998-2005)
Historical sources indicate that at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, Byblos became a fortified city-state founded to accommodate a millennia-long timber trade by sea, mainly to ancient Egypt. In the modern era however, the sea front of ancient Byblos remained unexplored until after the Civil War when Frost resumed research in maritime Byblos. From 1998, Frost started looking for any significant indications along the coastline and at sea that could lead her to locate the city’s main Bronze Age harbour. Up to this point, the scientific community had taken for granted that the smaller Medieval Harbour cove, located at the north of the city, had served this purpose. Frost conducted five research campaigns for the Lebanese Ministry of Culture/Directorate General of Antiquities (DGA) in ancient Byblos. She paved the way for the recent discovery of the location of the harbour in 2013 when a large silted-in harbour basin was discovered at the southern foot of the Bronze Age city. The ongoing work of the archaeological research project
“Byblos & the Sea” is now focused on accurately defining the full extent of the southern harbour, and understanding its configuration, scope, type and function:
Was it a simple anchorage, a harbour or a constructed port during Antiquity?
FROSTS’ FIVE FIELD INVESTIGATIONS
- TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BYBLIAN COASTLINE (2001) – DEFINING THE SEAFRONT ZONINGS
In 2001, Frost started investigating coastal Byblos and launched a basic topographical survey, conducted by British museum topographer Hugh Barnes and assisted by marine archaeologist Martine Francis. This investigation helped to identify man-made rock-cuttings (such as door Jambs, a fish tank, a maritime quarry and more) along the coastline, and define the different seafront zonings.
- COMPARATIVE STUDY: BYBLOS ROCK CUT TOMBS & TAP OSIRIS MAGNA GRAVES (2001)
At the foot of the Byblian promontory, Frost and her team surveyed a necropolis: a group of 19 graves cut into a spit of rock, known as Ras Byblos. These were measured, recorded and compared with similar rock-cut graves which Frost had surveyed in Alexandria-Egypt at the site of Tap Osiris Magna.
- SURVEYING AND CHARTING THE BYBLIAN OFFSHORE ANCHORAGES (1998 – 2002)
- “PROJET CÈDRE” TO LOCATE ANTIQUE HARBOR OF BYBLOS (2000): CORE SAMPLING MED. HARBOR
In 2000, as part of the “Projet Cèdre”, cores were taken at the Medieval Harbour dock to estimate the depth of the basin and study the composition of the seabed. The aim was to determine whether this fishermen’s basin could have served as a shelter for larger vessels during the Bronze Age. The extracted coarse sediments indicated a shallow and unprotected cove, ruling out this longstanding theory about the location of the Bronze Age commercial harbour in Northern Byblos.
Testing for a cothon: core sampling el-Skhyneh Bay
With the North of Byblos being ruled out for the city’s main harbor, Frost pursued her investigation at the Southern Byblian Bay of el-Skhyneh, testing for a cothon, or any vestige of an artificial harbor construction. The four corings taken there extracted coarse sediments, indicating an unprotected open bay exposed to predominant South Western winds and currents. This, again, compelled Frost to eliminate the Bay of el-Skhyneh as a potential location for the Bronze Age commercial harbour.
Offshore anchorage of Dahret Martine: an offshore mooring possibility?
Lacking evidence from the coastline, Frost eliminated any possibility of a harbour installation along the coastline. Nevertheless, based on a series of stone anchors found on the offshore anchorages of Dahret Martine, Frost adopted the idea of an offshore mooring area for Bronze Age cargo: kpnt service-crafts would commute back and forth, towing logs from el-Skhyneh Bay to the anchorage, to upload cargo vessels for shipping merchandise to Egypt. However, as these anchorages are exposed to winds and currents, mooring and loading activities would have been very challenging to perform in the open sea, especially the uploading of large and heavy timbers described in ancient annals and as found on Khufu’s (Cheops) royal barge. Could Dahret Martine simply be a temporary anchorage (?) for ships awaiting mooring in Byblos’s main harbor installation?
- TOURISTIC BIBLIAN WALKWAY (2005)
In 2005, concluding five archaeological campaigns on coastal Byblos, Frost worked on a series of descriptive panels for the different historical seafront zonings. This effort was meant to be a part of a broader tourism initiative that included developing a coastal pedestrian promenade at the foot of the Byblian promontory, a project “Byblos & the Sea” is hoping to implement with the Directorate General of Antiquities.