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42-525: The 19th century witnessed a considerable rise in seafaring traffic with the introduction of steamships and completion of the Suez Canal in 1869. Annual goods shipping weights rose from 40,000 tons to 1,700,000 tons between 1830 and 1914, and the first steamship arrived in Beirut in 1836. The Port of Beirut was developed by a French company to better handle the increasing amount of transported goods, and Beirut became

84-625: A 50-year concession from then mayor of Beirut Kenaan Taher Bey for the management of 660,000 square metres (7,100,000 sq ft) of the Beirut pine forest , provided he builds the "Cercle du Parc du Bois" or "Cercle Azmi" (Azmi Club), the first casino in Lebanon. Sursock proceeded to build the casino and the horse racetrack on the plot and created the Ottoman Casino-Club Society ( "Société du Casino-Club Ottoman" ) to that end. The pinery where

126-567: A highly prominent port city in the Ottoman Empire after centuries of being reduced to a trifling walled town. The brief Egyptian rule from 1832 to 1840 was responsible for important urban planning and sanitation developments; it also opened up the city to foreign trade and influence. In 1888 Beirut was once again under Ottoman rule, it was elevated to a new status and became the capital of the Vilayet of Beirut . The urban and architectural fabric of

168-616: A major seaport. The port is operated and managed by the Gestion et Exploitation du Port de Beyrouth (GEPB), ("Port Authority of Beirut"). In 1990, the Port of Beirut came under direct ownership of the Government of Lebanon, following the expiration of the company's charter, and continues to be operated by GEPB. Since December, 2004, container terminal operations are subcontracted to the private Beirut Container Terminal Consortium (BCTC). The terminal quay

210-578: A pier at the Beirut port were ousted by Lebanese Army forces under Emile Lahoud ; the seizure was part of broader efforts by President Elias Hrawi to consolidate power in the Beirut area, and coincided with the ouster of the Shi'a Amal from the Ouzai port and the predominately Druze Progressive Socialist Party from the Khalde harbor. After the war, the seaport and surrounding area were reconstructed and again became

252-546: A roadway or boulevard. Sometimes they are just strips of grass, or some may have gardens and trees. Some roadway esplanades may be used as parks with a walking/jogging trail and benches. Esplanade and promenade are sometimes used interchangeably. The derivation of "promenade" indicates a place specifically intended for walking, though many modern promenades and esplanades also allow bicycles and other nonmotorized transport. Some esplanades also include large boulevards or avenues where cars are permitted. A similar term with

294-802: A while in order to 'be seen' and be considered part of ' society '. Beach promenades such as the Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes , the famous Promenade des Anglais on the Mediterranean coast in Nice or the Lungomare of Barcola in Trieste still play a central role in city life and in the real estate market. In the United States, esplanade has another meaning, being also a median (strip of raised land) or berm dividing

336-403: Is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water , where people may walk. The historical definition of esplanade was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide clear fields of fire for the fortress's guns. In modern usage, the space allows the area to be paved as a pedestrian walk ; esplanades are often on sea fronts and allow walking whatever

378-668: The World War I , the Ottoman Empire was partitioned and Lebanon passed under the French mandate . The then French Adviser on Foreign Affairs François Georges-Picot was appointed Commissioner of the Ottoman Territories of Palestine and Syria; he arrived to Beirut and moved to the residence which served then as Azmy Bey 's (then wali of Beirut ) barracks and renamed it "Residence des Pins". On November 21, 1919, general Henri Gouraud ,

420-489: The 2020 port explosion. On 31 July and 4 August 2022, exactly 2 years after the explosion, the last of the northern block of the grain silos fell down. The port has been nicknamed the "Cave of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves " due to longstanding reports of corruption, including evasion of customs duties at the port due to bribery schemes and the undervaluation of imports. In the early 2010s, Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi estimated that tax evasion at

462-466: The Eastern Mediterranean . On 4 August 2020, a large explosion , caused by improperly stored ammonium nitrate , occurred at the port, killing at least 218 people, injuring more than 7,000 and rendering 300,000 others homeless. Large sections of the port and its infrastructure were destroyed, including most of Beirut's grain reserves, and billions of dollars in damages were inflicted across

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504-953: The French High Commissioner in Syria and Lebanon arrived in Beirut and laid the groundwork for the acquisition of the Pine Residence buildings and was inspired by the Residence Lyautey in Rabat to develop the Beiruti residence's rudimentary installation. On September 1, 1920, General Gouraud proclaimed from the porch of the Pine Residence the establishment of the State of Greater Lebanon ( Arabic : دولة لبنان الكبير Dawlat Lubnan Al-Kabir ; French : État du Grand Liban ) with its current boundaries and with Beirut as its capital. On September 28, 1921,

546-492: The Lebanon , acting as Greater Lebanon . This provided the Port with access to French funding and trade. The Port of Beirut would be continue to be operated by the same French Company, which renamed the Gestion et Exploitation du Port de Beyrouth in 1960. Much of the port was damaged during the Lebanese Civil War , and various parts of the port were under the control of various armed militias . In 1976, all shipping at

588-741: The Pine Residence when he returned to Lebanon as Head of the Free French Forces in July 1941 and August 1942. After the Lebanese Independence in 1943, the Pine Palace became the official residence of the Ambassadors of France to Lebanon . The Embassy's land lease expired in 1964 and negotiations were undertaken so that France could acquire the symbolic premises. Talks ended in 1972 and on October 7 of that year, then-ambassador Michel Fontaine signed

630-564: The Pine Residence with his family was assassinated a few meters away from the embassy by the Syrian government on November 4, 1981. Until the beginning of the 1982 Israeli bombardments , Ambassador Paul-Marc Henry still lived in the palace which was situated on the front-line of the Lebanese battlefield. The Pine Residence served successively as a field hospital for the French Army then as headquarters to

672-506: The Port was granted to a French Company, the Compagnie du Port, des Quais et des Entrepôts de Beyrouth (Company of the Port, Quays and Warehouses of Beirut). The Ottoman administration granted further concessions and autonomy to the company, in managing the Port of Beirut, as it became an important harbour in Lebanon. In 1920, Lebanon came under French Administration, under the Mandate for Syria and

714-769: The Sursocks reached an agreement by which the family yielded the property to the French state for a sum of 1.85 million French Francs. The French State became the owner of the buildings and tenant of the Beirut municipal forest ground which was adjacent and separated from the Beirut Hippodrome by a simple wooden fence. The high commissioners who resided in the Pine residence were: During his first stay in Beirut between 1929 and 1932, Commander Charles de Gaulle lived in Achrafieh but he stayed at

756-484: The Tanzimat reforms set the foundation of a new framework for buildings characterized by works inspired from several European styles such as neo-Baroque and neo-Gothic . The former architectural tradition declined progressively. The new status of the city was in tandem with the accumulation of riches by a number of its inhabitants. The affluent Beirutis were heavily influenced by the western way of living; they moved out of

798-544: The agreement with the administrator of the Mohafazat of Beirut Chafic Abou Haïdar. It wasn't long before the Lebanese Civil War began and ambassador Argod was compelled to evacuate the embassy premises in May 1975 only to return by the end of 1976 until the Pine Residence was occupied by armed militias in 1978. Argod returned to the residence in late 1978 until the arrival of his successor ambassador Delamare in 1979. Delamare who lived in

840-444: The city. The Port of Beirut was forced to close, due to the large-scale damage caused by the explosions, with cargo being redirected to smaller ports, such as Tripoli and Tyre . Prior to the disaster, about 60 percent of Lebanon's imports came through the port, according to an S&P Global estimate. On 14 April 2022, the Lebanese government ordered the demolition of Beirut’s grain silos , which were at risk of collapse after

882-413: The dangers of the storage of the chemical at the port and asked for authorisation to re-export it, turn it over to the army , or sell it to a Lebanese explosives company. However, no action was taken to remove the stockpile, as all six letters were ignored. Following the explosions which came from the Port of Beirut, the Government of Lebanon placed 16 Port Officials under house arrest, due to questions on

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924-415: The explosion initially killed several port workers, with the resulting shockwave affecting half of the city, killing several residents in their homes and people in buildings and streets. The explosions destroyed large parts of the port, including its warehouses and grain elevator; however, satellite imagery taken after the explosion shows the container port largely intact. As of 14 August, the container port

966-442: The fear of another explosion, and motivated people to flee the city, with the addition of the Lebanese governor Marwan Abboud asking the people of Beirut to reduce traffic to roads leading to the port, for the firefighters to act quick with putting off the fires. The fire was brought under control, by fire personnel on the ground and by Lebanese Air Force helicopters dropping water. Promenade An esplanade or promenade

1008-517: The international observers. The premises were finally abandoned on February 4, 1984, and the guardianship of the building was passed to the special forces of the Lebanese internal Security forces as of April 8, 1986. At the end of the hostilities, the French state recuperated the heavily bombarded and pillaged edifice the security of which was entrusted to the French Gendarmerie from May 25, 1991, until February 1995. The decision to rehabilitate

1050-478: The location of cultural institutions. The rapid development of artificial street lighting in the 19th century also enabled safe use in the evening. One example of this is Vienna's Ringstrasse . Esplanades became popular in Victorian times , when it was fashionable to visit seaside resorts . A promenade, often abbreviated to '(the) prom', was an area where people – couples and families especially – would go to walk for

1092-537: The management of the port. On 10 September 2020, a large fire erupted in the port area covering the skies of Beirut with toxic gas. The incident occurred in a cooking oil warehouse and food parcels belonging to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), then spread to a stock of rubber tires in the port's duty-free zone. Following black smoke rising above the city's skyline, panic broke out due to

1134-639: The modernization of Beirut 's city center, the wali of Beirut Azmi Bey planned to build a high-end meeting place for the city's privileged class in the ‘Bois des Pins’; he commissioned the building of a casino and a horse racecourse . The Pine Residence was built by Alfred Moussa Sursock, a Lebanese nobleman working as an official at the Ottoman embassy in Paris until the beginning of the First World War . Alfred returned to Beirut and on December 5, 1915, he obtained

1176-459: The old city and built their villas on the hills surrounding Beirut and sought to create a recreation center away from the bustling and crowded city center. The Pine Park was chosen for its scenic greenery and its distance from the busy downtown area; a racecourse and a casino similar the ones being built in European capitals were envisioned. Horse racing was a common practice in ancient Beirut until it

1218-564: The port amounted to more than $ 1.5 billion annually. The port also earns this nickname for its abandonment of cargo and crew. In the aftermath of massive explosions in 2020, in an apparent industrial accident , Faysal Itani, a political analyst and deputy director of the Center for Global Policy at Georgetown University wrote that the Port, like other aspects of Lebanese society, suffered from "pervasive culture of negligence, petty corruption and blame-shifting." In 1887, during Ottoman rule,

1260-541: The port stopped for nine months due to militia clashes. A 1977 article in the Middle East Economic Digest reported that "not a warehouse or piece of equipment was intact" when the port officially reopened on 15 December 1976. The Lebanese Forces , a Christian militia, took control of the port in mid-1986; the militia withdrew in 1989 amid a push from Lebanese Army forces under the command of General Michel Aoun . In 1991, Lebanese Forces that had controlled

1302-541: The preceding six years at a depot at the port, specifically Hangar 12. The ammonium nitrate had arrived at the port in September 2013, on board a Russian-owned, Moldovan - flagged cargo ship called the MV Rhosus . The vessel came from Georgia and was bound for Mozambique , but was abandoned by its owners and crew in Beirut. In six letters over the next three years, port customs officials warned Lebanese authorities about

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1344-515: The project was set to be constructed had been exploited for shipbuilding since the Phoenician times and up until the arrival of the Crusaders . By the end of the 19th century the Beirut pine forest became a frequented promenade . The park hosted regular archery contests and a Kiosk where military music was played every Friday during winter. The construction of "Qasr es-Sanawbar" began in 1916 under

1386-558: The residence and to regroup all the services of the embassy in its proximity was taken during the service term of ambassador Jean-Pierre Lafon who arrived in May 1994. The rehabilitation works were inaugurated by then president Jacques Chirac during his official visit to Lebanon in April 1996. The works which were overseen by Ambassador Daniel Jouanneau were done in May 1998 and the Pine Residence were inaugurated in an official reception headed by President Chirac on May 30, 1998. The Pine Residence

1428-449: The state of the tide , without having to walk on the beach . In the 19th century, the razing of city fortifications and the relocation of port facilities made it possible in many cities to create promenade paths on the former fortresses and ramparts. The parts of the former fortifications, such as hills, viewpoints, ditches, waterways and lakes have now been included in these promenades, making them popular excursion destinations as well as

1470-476: The supervision of the Sursock family architect Bahjat Abdel Nour and involved Amine Abdel Nour, Hussein al-Ahdab, Youssef Aftimus , Maroun Ghammacheh and Gaspard Nafilyan. The two-story building was completed in 1920 it consisted of a raised basement, a ground floor with a hall and a dining area, and an upper floor with game rooms. Nevertheless, the building never served as a casino because of the ongoing world war I; it

1512-545: The until-then typical medieval Islamic walled city was changed by the Ottoman Ebniye and Turuk Regulations that were enacted in 1848 and 1864 as a part of the Tanzimat reforms and that would serve as a scheme for the development of Beirut until after the French mandate over Lebanon. The reforms resulted in greater city autonomy through the creation of municipalities and the development of the urban space. The municipality of Beirut

1554-644: Was banished by the Byzantine church authority around the 5th century AD and all the hippodromes were abandoned to decay. The Roman hippodrome of Beirut which occupies 3500 m near the Maghen Abraham Synagogue in Wadi Abu Jamil , the historic, Jewish quarter of Beirut, was discovered in 1988. The Roman Hippodrome of Beirut was the second to be discovered in Lebanon after the Tyre Hippodrome In view of

1596-634: Was classified as a historic monument by the Lebanese Directorate General of Antiquities. List of Ambassadors of France to Lebanon Port of Beirut The Port of Beirut ( Arabic : مرفأ بيروت ) is the main port in Lebanon on the eastern part of the Saint George Bay on Beirut's northern Mediterranean coast, west of the Beirut River . It is one of the largest and busiest ports on

1638-492: Was created in 1863. Starting from 1860 and for twenty years, the Tanzimat impacted the transformation of the Beirut space heavily. The period was marked by the restoration of the ancient souks , the creation of new commercial spaces and the establishment of infrastructures on a big scale and the building of large public and private building such as the Grand Serail and its annexes and the Pine residence. The movement catalyzed by

1680-450: Was expanded to 1100 m and has 16 post-panamax ship-to-shore gantry cranes , and extensive on-shore container handling equipment. In addition to exports and imports, the terminal handles significant container transshipments. Traffic has grown from 945,143 TEUs in 2008, to 1,229,081 in 2019. On 4 August 2020, a series of explosions occurred in the port. At least 204 people were killed (with an additional 3 missing) plus 6,500 were injured;

1722-483: Was operating. Up to 300,000 people may have been rendered homeless, according to Beirut City Governor Marwan Abboud . Damage estimates are in the billions of dollars, some estimates reaching $ 15 billion. The cruise ship Orient Queen sank in the port after receiving massive damage. The initial explosion may have occurred in a fireworks warehouse, while a subsequent larger blast came from 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that had been stored for

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1764-424: Was used as a military hospital instead. The Pine Residence was enlarged over time under the French mandate; the Ottoman lounge was reorganized, the "Salon de Musique" and the north–south facade were extended in 1928. In 1931 the northern chambers of the ground floor were transformed to the actual "Grand Salon" and dining room and in 1932 the first floor atrium was created by French architect Michel Ecochard . After

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