Welcome to the hotel. All rooms come with views of urban warfare

Some of the heaviest fighting in the Lebanese Civil War happened in Beirut’s ritzy hotel district

A masked Phalange gunman plays the piano, his assault rifle momentarily set aside, in a bar at the Holiday Inn in Beirut, Lebanon, November 3, 1975. The Holiday Inn was occupied by Phalangists battling leftist Muslim fighters during Beirut’s “Hotel War,” a subconflict of the Lebanese Civil War. (AP/Lapousterle)

This story is brought to you in partnership with Beirut, the new movie starring Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike. Coming to theaters April 11.

“Artillery side or car-bomb side?” That was the question posed to guests checking into Beirut’s Commodore Hotel in 1982. It wasn’t hyperbole: the Commodore was only a few minutes’ walk from some of the bloodiest fighting in Lebanon’s civil war.

Violence between Christian and Muslim militias had broken out a decade earlier, and one of the first battlegrounds was the city’s famed Minet-el-Hosn hotel district. The tony seaside playground was one reason why Beirut was known as the “Paris of the Middle East.” International celebrities, such as Brigitte Bardot, and heads of state, including King Farouk of Egypt, stayed at the waterfront Saint-Georges Hotel, one of the district’s most glamorous spots.

Remains of the Holiday Inn in downtown Beirut, 2010. (C. Ramblant/Wikimedia)

When war broke out, the district’s high-rise hotels offered fighters perfect strongholds from which to launch rockets. By October 1975, the Saint-Georges’ only guests were embattled Phalangist fighters using the heritage site to attack Muslim forces in the nearby Burj El-Murr, an unfinished 30-story tower with advantageous views of the city. Other luxury lodging turned flash points included the Phoenicia Intercontinental, the Alcazar Hotel, and the 400-room Holiday Inn, which had been completed only the year before.

In the early years of the war, control of the various structures shifted repeatedly. The Saint-Georges once changed hands multiple times during a single night. In March 1976, PLO commandos and leftist militiamen seized the Holiday Inn, only to lose it a few hours later: the Muslims had celebrated their victory so heartily that the Phalangists were able to sneak back in and recapture the hotel the following morning.

Today, downtown Beirut is returning to its former glory. New development is everywhere, and many of the hotel district’s iconic, war-weary buildings have been rebuilt or revamped as the city reclaims its image as a jewel of the Mediterranean. The Holiday Inn, however, remains a bullet-riddled shell encircled by new high-rises—both a stark reminder of the city’s pain and a warning to those who would consign the past to history.

Smoke rises from Beirut’s Holiday Inn during the early stages of Lebanon’s Civil War, December 15, 1975. (AP Photo)

A resident of the Mayflower Hotel carries a critically wounded friend after a rocket attack in June 1976. (AP/Yahya Yamani)

Palestinian fighters in the heavily damaged Phoenicia Hotel in December 1975. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

A Christian Phalange militia member takes aim from a Beirut window in November 1975. (Alain Dejean/Sygma via Getty Images)

This story is brought to you by Beirut, the brilliant new thriller set amid the chaos of the Lebanese Civil War. In theaters April 11.

Green berets security forces attend to injuries in the hotel district of Beirut, December 15, 1975. (AP)

The Saint-Georges Hotel in 1954 (left) and after suffering heavy damage (right) during the civil war in January 1976. (Three Lions + Jean Tesseyre/Paris Match via Getty Images)

In 2005, the Saint-Georges was again rocked by violence when a car bomb exploded outside the hotel, killing Lebanon’s former premier Rafiq Haririin. (Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images)

A group of armed militiamen on Beirut’s waterfront in December 1975. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A Syrian army checkpoint in front of the Commodore Hotel in Beirut, 1987. (Kamel Lamaa/AFP/Getty Images)

Schoolchildren walk past war-damaged buildings in 1997. In the background is the unfinished Burj El-Murr, or Murr Tower, which was used as a strategic position by fighters during Lebanon’s civil war. (Will Yurman/Getty Images)

A dust cloud erupts after a controlled detonation of what was supposed to be the Beirut Hilton, in July 2002. The 22-story structure had yet to be inaugurated when civil war broke out in Lebanon, and it was soon after occupied by militias battling for control of the city. (AP/Adnan Haj)