The Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Lebanon

Abstract

The actions presented by AICS Beirut add to the largely positive impact that the Italian Cooperation has had in safeguarding the cultural and natural heritage in the fragile context of Lebanon. These Italian actions are implemented within the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development Program (CHUD), launched in Lebanon as a driver for development and for bolstering national and international tourism. The Cooperation’s activities contribute to the mitigation of heritage degradation risks, while at the same time supporting the upskilling of a large number of local professionals, trained to intervene effectively in securing and preserving Lebanese cultural heritage. In committing to the preservation and valorisation of Lebanese cultural and natural heritage, there is no escaping the structural problems of the monuments, cleaning parts that need curative activities, conserving architectural and decorative elements, consolidating the structures, and making the sites accessible to the local population and visitors. The actions are tailored to the specific goal of enhancing cultural tourism, which is a major source of income in Lebanon, and provides many job opportunities, revitalizing local economies. At the same time, a significant effort has been made to forge a connection between community and territory, in order to increase a sense of belonging, by planning both information days and workshops.

1 Premise

The exceptional cultural and living heritage in Lebanon creates incredible opportunities for sustainable development and tourism. Tourism is a major source of income in Lebanon given the availability of tourism-related work and, naturally, wide-scale employment in this sector helps revitalize local economies, bringing money into the country. Since the financial crisis in 2019, the Lebanese economy has been in a state of fragility, the crisis having had an impact on much of the country; on its heritage, its economic activities and on its tourist industry. Given this situation, providing support to cultural heritage and tourism in Lebanon is all the more relevant.

Italian support for Lebanese cultural heritage, through AICS, aims at salvaging sites at risk. To do so, the Italians have contributed with approximately 13,828,000 euros to this end. The Italian Cooperation has intervened on various Lebanese sites of historical, cultural and archaeological interest, including three World Heritage Sites (Baalbek, Tyre, Qadisha Valley). Other sites of intervention, neglected due to the country’s modest financial resources, are the Saida Land Castle in Sidon, the Khan el Echle Caravanserai in Saida, the Chamaa Castle, the historic Town Hall in Baalbek, the basement of the National Museum in Beirut, and the Sursock Museum in Beirut.

The main activities for preserving and promoting cultural heritage are outlined in the framework of the Cultural Heritage and Urban Development Program (CHUD), to which Italy has contributed with a soft loan of 10,228,000 euros and a grant of 2,200,000 euros. Another important intervention is the project for the restoration and valorisation of Wadi Qadisha, entrusted to UNESCO with a contribution of 500,000. Wadi Qadisha is the most important early Christian monastic settlement and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Italian Cooperation is also involved in the restoration of the Sursock Museum in Beirut, contributing with a grant of 1,000,000 euros. This intervention funds the restructuring of the museum, its electro-mechanical infrastructure, doors and lighting, in order that it might be reopened after the damages caused by the Beirut Blast. The Italian Cooperation is also funding the project Cultural Religious Tourism, thanks to a grant of 400,000 euros. The aim of this intervention is to carry out a mapping of the rich and diverse Lebanese sites of cultural, historic, religious, and archaeological value and to promote them as a prime global, cultural and religious tourist and pilgrimage destination.

2 The National Museum Restoration

The restoration and restructuring of the basement of the National Museum in Beirut, working off a grant of 1,000,000 euros, made possible the public reopening of this part of the museum, closed since the beginning of the Lebanese civil war in 1975. The project was able to renovate the basement completely, as well as to set up a modern display of its funeral art collections. The Italian commitment to support the National Museum of Beirut, technically and financially, has led to the restoration of a total area of 550 square meters, upon which a new and modern exhibition was set up in the basement, designed by an Italian architect, to celebrate the history and culture of the country. The project, managed directly by AICS Beirut, was carried out alongside a group of experts, and succeeded in mobilizing a number of specialists, capable of restoring and preserving the collections to be displayed. The project provided technical assistance to the Lebanese General Direction of Antiquities for the restoration and conservation of monuments such as the second century AD Tyre Tomb. Frescoes were restored and relocated to a specific space with the help of ICCROM experts. The restoration and conservation of the mummies, dating back to the thirteenth century, and previously contained in the Assi el-Hadath cave in the Qadisha Valley, was carried out with the help of experts from the specialised EURAC Research Institute in Bolzano. The museum boasts an extraordinary collection of anthropomorphic sarcophagi, found in Sidon and dating back to the fifth/sixth century AD. The scenography was put together by an Italian architect. Since the inauguration of the restored basement in 2016, the Museum has welcomed high numbers of visitors, while ticket sales are progressively rising. Italy also supported the publication of the National Museum Guide in four languages (Arabic, English, French and Italian).

3 The CHUD Program

The Government of Lebanon decided to invest in preserving heritage and in urban development as sustainable development sectors and, in 2003, with the financial support of the World Bank and bilateral donors (France and Italy), it launched the CHUD program, aimed at preserving and restoring the country’s cultural heritage in the historic cities of Baalbek, Byblos, Saida, Tripoli, and Tyre. The Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) contracted UNESCO in order to provide advice and technical assistance to the Lebanese Ministry of Culture for the two World Heritage sites (Tyre and Baalbek). In particular, the contract aims to assist the General Direction of Antiquities in the monitoring and supervision of projects in Tyre and Baalbek, as well as meeting the World Heritage consultation requirements, monitoring the conservation measures to be implemented, providing reports and organising workshops and events on heritage intervention methodologies. The CHUD program puts culture at the heart of city reconstruction and recovery processes in the wake of crisis. The program was designed to provide operational lessons on how to bolster local economic development, enhance citizens’ quality of life, and improve the conservation and management of Lebanese cultural heritage.

The intervention started with assessments and surveys on the state of conservation, collecting all necessary documentation and carrying out archaeological investigations. All this information, useful in updating the historical interpretative data, has informed conservation plans concerning surfaces and structures. As a consequence, when the works started, techniques of restoration and consolidation were tailored to the specific needs of the site. Moreover, an important effort has been made to respect international protocols, by applying non-invasive methods so that the integrity of the sites and monuments could be maintained. Alongside this, the intervention was able to increase local know-how in the protection and management of heritage, provide infrastructure and services, train unskilled workers on the job, raise awareness of heritage value, and enhance participatory processes, accessibility and inclusivity for all.

The creation of a large network of partners is an additional achievement of the intervention. The partnership involves: the Lebanese Government—CDR, the Ministry of Culture and General Direction of Antiquities, the Ministry of Public Works and the General Direction of Urbanism, the Ministry of Tourism, the Municipalities, Universities and research centres, citizens of the towns participating in the projects, and civil society organisations.

Moreover, the project involved a number of Italian experts, capitalising on Italian technical and scientific knowledge, as well as best practices in restoring and preserving historical monuments.

In terms of civil participation and of awareness raising, the project also focused on site accessibility and communication strategies. Beyond improving the safety of the sites, new visitor itineraries and walkways have been created with the aim of valorizing the cultural and historical value of the sites and landscape, including in the remote and less known areas. The visitor itineraries have been put together to promote the discovery and restoration of the site and to improve visitor experiences. This can be achieved by presenting the monumentality of the place and placing it in its historical context. Focus has thus been placed on the cultural complexity of the sites, on the multiplicity of historical layers, on the continuity of history, and thus on different interpretation perspectives.

The design of these visiting circuits has been shared and agreed upon among local and national authorities, as well as civil society organizations (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Baalbek—panoramic view of the infrastructure for visitors

4 The Baalbek Intervention—Jupiter Temple’s Colonnade

The preservation of Jupiter’s Temple Colonnade, the most iconic monument within the site of Baalbek,¹ is a best practice in intervention, that capitalizes on Italian methodology and expertise, and serves as a pilot for future interventions on both national and regional cultural heritage sites. The Jupiter temple, within which only six columns remain standing, is twenty meters high, and was once supported by an entablature of more than five meters. It forms a rectangle of eighty-eight meters by forty-eight, which makes it the largest temple in the Roman world. Its purpose was to show, by inscribing it in stone, the power of the Roman Empire that led Augustus to construct a great sanctuary at Heliopolis; the works began under his reign and continued up until the end of the second century. Celebrating the glory and power of Rome, the temple was built in accordance with the principles that characterize Roman religious architecture and the decorative elements were borrowed from the Greco-Roman ornamental repertoire. However, the organization takes into account the religious usages of Rome.

The project intervened on structural decaying and surface pathologies affecting the Jupiter Temple’s Colonnade, applying suitable solutions designed to preserve the integrity of the monument. The conservation was made possible, thanks to the scaffolding that provided the opportunity to conduct a widespread check-up and intervention from up close, and up to the very top of the temple. This phase has been completed and solutions are now being implemented in tackling the most critical problems concerning its stability and preservation (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2

Restoration works, Jupiter Temple—Baalbek

The Italian integrated approach, applying the most appropriate techniques and knowledge, and in line with the restorations and conservation charters, was shared and approved of at the international and national level, along with the involvement of ICOMOS/UNESCO experts, who were in charge of checking and preparing independent reports on the project’s progress and results. These experts, alongside concerned authorities and civil society representatives, have been gathered in order to provide feedback and advice on what was to be done. On the site itself, architects, archaeologists, engineers, conservators, workers, management staff worked alongside one another, dealing with the monument’s structural problems, cleaning parts in need of curative action, conserving architectural and decoration features, and consolidating the architrave and the upper part of the monument.

5 Impact of the CHUD for Sustainable Development

The actions carried out by the CHUD preserve cultural heritage sites that are cornerstones of a country’s identity and history. In this case, they contributed to increasing the site’s accessibility and its tourist appeal. Culture and heritage have been established as being amongst some of the most central components of a country’s identity and attractiveness to visitors.

Cultural tourism in Lebanon lends itself to territorial development, as much as the Lebanese tourist industry is one of the central and most vitally important for the country’s economy. Tourism in Lebanon is recognized as traditionally being one of the leading economic contributors to the country’s GDP. Tourism in the country increased by 47% from 2020 to 2022, following the pandemic.

From the moment that the Italian Cooperation has been working on the best known sites in Lebanon, among which Baalbek holds the number one spot in terms of tourist numbers, these have come to represent an important income for the local area, as well as, more generally, for sustainable development.

From a social development perspective, the intervention has enhanced local human resources involved during the project, by carrying out local capacity building, training local experts, raising awareness and encouraging participatory processes. By involving local communities, including disadvantaged groups, the intervention has succeeded in building a shared vision of development. Different events involved local civil society, while authorities made sure to communicate and provide information on the activities, stressing that the preservation of the area’s cultural heritage should involve everybody, since it is a powerful driving force for cultural tourism, and impacts several important sectors able to generate income. Over the course of the project, numerous experts, men and women, were involved in training; among them architects, archaeologists, engineers, and conservators, all of whom worked on site, dealing with the structural problems of the ancient monuments, cleaning parts that needed curative action, conserving architectural and decorative elements, and consolidating the architrave and the monument’s upper section. Finally, a great number of unskilled local people benefitted from informal apprenticeships during the works.

These actions encouraged communication, and increased awareness that cultural heritage is to be considered a cornerstone of sustainable development.

The results achieved by the CHUD program are in line with the UN Global Indicator for Sustainable Development Goals, particularly that which acts to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, promoting inclusive and sustainable growth, and productive employment. The program provided technical assistance and training to the DGU—Directorate General of Urban Planning and DGA—Directorate General of Antiquities, with the aim of improving cultural heritage management and promoting institutional strengthening. It also represented an important step in the implementation of Italian expertise, whose knowledge and experience in the field has been widely acknowledged among stakeholders.

The Italian commitment will have a positive impact on the country, by increasing sustainable and inclusive economic development opportunities in the areas where the projects take place. The results have been shown to lead to the successful and effective management of cultural heritage, by linking it with key stakeholders and thereby contributing to the revamping of the tourist industry, while setting up new and effective services that benefit both local communities and tourists.

Lastly, the restoration and conservation results have been evaluated by independent UNESCO experts, who looked into how the works were proceeding with regard to pre-conservation surfaces and treatment of the columns and decorative elements of the capitals, lintel and architrave. They also looked into the techniques adopted and the results obtained, and ended up expressing a favourable opinion of the work done. Experts concluded by saying that the Jupiter Temple has been restored inch by inch and that this intervention can be considered the best practice of restoration and conservation in the Mediterranean.