Beit Beirut: From a sniper house to a museum
Nov 22, 2022
Clara Sairafi
Alo Alo?
Alo Beirut!
Please, dear
Connect me to Beirut
And hurry the connection up a bit -Sabah, Shahruret-el Wadi
A few words from the famous song “Allo Beirut” by the Lebanese Diva of Music, Sabah, whose glamour and joie de vivre swept all over the globe, became true.
The fictional phone call turned into a real-life occurrence.
One call, one place, one building has now connected the present with the past, the Beirut of the 60s, and the Beirut of today.
Beit Beirut, also known as the Barakat Building or the Yellow House has kept Lebanon’s history hidden behind its walls since 1924, from a sniper house standing on the Sodeco-Ashrafieh line during the 1975’s Civil War, to a museum in 2022.
The Barakat building is now a place for exhibitions and cultural events that are organized by a group of artists, journalists, and researchers that have uncovered a chapter of Beirut’s past and brought to life parts of Jean Prosper Gay Parra’s life. Prosper Gay Parra, a Franco-Lebanese entrepreneur and the proprietor of the most well-known nightclub, “Cave de Roi,” as well as the Palm Beach and the legendary Excelsior hotel, has contributed to the expansion of the cultural and aesthetic personality of the Beirut nights.
Tala Khlat, the co-director of the Beit Beirut project and the president of the “Men Ila” NGO that is responsible of the “Allo Beirut” exhibition said: “After the Autumn of Beirut, the city’s cultural life has picked back up. Beit Beirut, now hosts a new exhibition entitled “Allo Beirut?” in the wake of the famous tune of the Lebanese legendary singer, Al-Shahroura, Sabah.
“It is an exhibition that extends from the early years of the city until today. This exhibition depicts the history of Beirut, highlighting its transformation from the 60s till today, and demonstrates that the city’s present is a mirror of its past through the fact that both the Lebanon of today and the Lebanon of the 1960s face the same public sector issues and occurrences, The history is repeating itself,” she added.
“Beit Beirut is an old oriental-inspired architectural design, composed of 3 floors and 8 rooms, where ten artists have depicted, inside of each room, the 60’s ‘Golden Beirut’,” said a presenter of the “Allo Beirut?” exhibition.
This historical building houses the archives left in the building as well as those found in the Excelsior Hotel by Jean Prosper Gay. All the furniture pieces of the nightclub, hotel, and office of the prominent entrepreneur were covered in the building, which gave the present generation a glimpse of the life in Beirut in the 60s, along with the city’s nightlife, culture, and society in that period.
Beit Beirut or the Barakat Building, surname dates back to the 20s, when a couple, Nicholas and Victoria Barakat, commissioned Youssif Aftimos, a well-known architect of the period, to create a building design for them. Aftimos had created a number of important structures in Beirut, including the grand theatre, Rivoli, in downtown. The Barakat couple lived in this house until the beginning of the civil war. After 1975, the building was abandoned by the couple, and a warring group overtook it.
Bassel Zahereddine, the guide of the museum said: “The building stands 24 meters high and is situated on the green line, or the border line that divided “West Beirut” from “East Beirut”, or more particularly, the Sodeco from Ashrafieh, during the civil war. When the fighting began, fighters seized the building on account of its advantageous position and height.”
“The building’s design allows you to monitor the area around the building from four distinct angles: the front, the back, the sides facing the road, and the green line. And that’s one of the factors that renders the structure a strategic war spot for the warriors,” he added.
The tragic and heart-breaking story authored by the Lebanese Civil War is narrated on the building’s walls. The walls were covered with bullet holes and phrases dating from the 70s, that were written by the warriors.
The Civil War-era tragedies that the fighters endured are shown throughout the building: “I want to speak the truth, my soul flew away in a minute” or “I want to speak the truth: My soul has become impure”; “I miss you my love- اشتقتلك حبيبتي”; and “Hell-الجحيم”.
When the war was over in 1990, the building was deserted. And in 1997, the Barakat Building was slated to be demolished, but it was rescued by many architectures among us Mona Hallak, an architect and a historic preservation campaigner, that has preserved Beirut’s identity and heritage.
“This museum and the “Allo Beirut?” exhibition, revisit the past of the city and aim to make the Lebanese citizens rethink their relationship with Beirut and question their present, in order to reclaim their history to build a better Future!” said Tala Khlat.
The historical Beirut moments and events that were buried in Beit Beirut are compelling enough to keep visitors coming back for more. The building has captured not only the history of Beirut but also the hearts of all its guests.
…
My heart is there, I’ve lost it over there
I want to ask about my heart
Maybe it’s hidden there
-Sabah, Shahruret-el Wadi
