Beirut’s Mar Mikhael station, located between the El-Khodr mosque and the Saint-Michel church, is an authentic station, with authentic wagons from another era, steam locomotives, some still equipped with snow plows, a fireplace for emptying ashes, … a water tower, a rotating platform for turning locomotives, level crossings, sleepers, a switch change, a passenger building with its clock, a platform, offices and workshops. The oldest locomotive dates from 1894. Built by SLM Winterthur, A legendary Swiss company specializing in rack trains for the mountains, it was there when the line opened in 1895!
Disused since 1996, damaged by the port explosion on August 4, 2020, this industrial land of 10,000 m² A new life begins with the restoration of old buildings and the creation of a public place transformed into a memory center and cultural space. All this for a total of $3.5 million: 1 million euros provided by UN-Habitat and 2 million euros financed by Italian cooperation. Good news for this heritage, with strong links with Europe.
Indeed, the buildings, erected at the end of the 19th century by an Ottoman company, were constructed with French capital. The passenger station and its annex are exact copies of the passenger stations. the old Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean network (PLM), even if the main building has been enriched with local elements, such as the tripartite window.
The Sofar municipal station and its water tower are quite well preserved.
In a way, this project was born from the legendary rivalry between the English and the French. At the end of the 19th century, the port of Jaffa, In Palestine, it was under British influence. To divert merchandise traffic from the port of Beirut and go against French interests to favor their own, the English wanted build a railway line between Damascus and the port of Jaffa. The French responded with the construction of a cogwheel railway line, begun in 1889 and inaugurated in 1895.
A rack railway has two parallel steel rails, like conventional railways, supplemented by a third toothed rail, placed between the smooth rails. The locomotive is equipped with central gears. The assembly offers the grip necessary to cross passes of more than 1500 meters and negotiate slopes of 7%, as in the case of the Mount Lebanon, a high percentage for freight trains.
The European history of Lebanese railways does not end there. Steam locomotives with unlikely destinations ran on the Naqoura-Beirut-Tripoli (NBT), Riyaq-Aleppo and Tripoli-Homs lines. Built in Germany between 1902 and 1912, they were transferred to France in 1919 as war reparations after the Treaty of Versailles. After traveling on the railways of the North and East of France, they went to Lebanon in 1940, then under French mandate.
These trains passed through Beirut’s second station, called Jisr el-Wati Central Station. Designed during the Second World War by the Commonwealth armies for military reasons, it offers no architectural interest, unlike the Mikhaël Sea Station. The wagons are still languishing there, next to the stacked cement sleepers. Above all, the Polish diesel locomotives Delivered between 1977 and 1978, they were stored there until recently; proof that the war that broke out in 1975 did not destroy the train, contrary to what many think. In reality, it was reconstruction, and sometimes corruption, that dealt the final blow.
Some Lebanese remember family excursions to Jbeil, north of Beirut, in the 1980s, in the midst of the conflict. Only the departure station and the terminal existed. But those who had taken refuge outside the capital could settle down at any point along the way and call the driver. He would stop and allow them to continue. SO, The duration of the trip depends on the number of passengers who stopped the train and the time it took to settle in or unload luggage.
Worker using lime produced by the only manufacturer in Lebanon. In the background you can see some locomotives and the water tower. We are right in front of the port, so the explosion caused a lot of damage
Today, in Beirut or on the coast, we still find sections of cement tracks or sleepers. Sometimes they are covered by a building, a store or the asphalt of the street. And that is the main difficulty. Despite the desire for a revival of the railway which would solve many problems, despite the declarations of the Minister of Transport on the day of the inauguration affirming that he would not give up this costly but beneficial prospect for the economy, this option seems very unlikely. We should start by sacrificing the famous Beirut-Jounieh maritime route, built to alleviate traffic. Designed temporarily, it is located on land belonging to the railway company. and includes a railway line. Putting the train back into service would require removing the asphalt and destroying buildings that were built on or around it through illegal permits issued by some local authorities. You can imagine the chaos this dismantling would cause. If some localities managed to take the necessary measures, their initiative would be useless if the others remained inflexible.
At the very least, UNESCO’s rehabilitation of Mar Mikhael station will allow the public to discover Lebanon’s rich railway history through the creation of a place of memory and the preservation of archives. Visitors will be able to dream of the legendary Orient-Express, which linked London to Istanbul, and the Taurus-Express, which, from 1930, linked the British capital to Cairo. The signage will introduce them to the railway world, explaining for example the different components of the system, as well as the reason for the difference in track gauge that they will see on the ground. Indeed, the Beirut-Damascus line had a narrow gauge due to the famous rack railway, and the London-Cairo line had a double gauge.
Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO, inaugurating the project on September 4 in the presence of the Lebanese Minister of Culture and the Minister of Transport, etc.
So that everything is ready on time, architects specializing in heritage as Nathalie Chahine and Roland Haddad work hard, directing the workers to ensure an identical renovation based on the plans and drawings given by Tatig Tendjoukiana very good connoisseur of trains who has worked for years for the conservation of trains in general and of this place in particular.
During the inauguration of the site, the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, thanked Italy, thanks to which this phase of rehabilitation can be guaranteed, but also other European countries which contribute to the restoration of heritage in general thanks to the help of the European Union: “What we are doing at the former Mar Mikhael station is a gesture of hope, support, both for the heritage of this country and for its beautiful history, which testifies to the extraordinary role of Lebanon as a crossroads at the edge of all paths. But it is also a project turned towards the future, towards the cultural industries, towards artists. What we are doing with UNESCO, with the support of Italy and the Lebanese government, is carry out rehabilitation which will offer a new public space in this district, a reappropriation of this heritage, of this history turned towards the future, towards creation.
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