Sarah Yassine 5th international cultural landscape conference 2014

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN

On Beirut’s Vestigial Railway Station: Layers of a Hidden Place Sarah Yassine Urban planner Phoenicia Street, Beirut, Lebanon + 9613519419 sarahyassine@gmail.com HISTORIC URBAN LANDSCAPE ABSTRACT This paper establishes the significance of Mar Mikhael, Beirut’s former railway station, as historical urban landscape and industrial heritage. Vandalized and usurped by militias during the Lebanese civil war, with illegal developments thriving on its dedicated right of way, Lebanon’s entire 402 kilometres railway network became vestigial, with a legacy of 3 main stations in Rayak, Tripoli and Beirut and another 47 stations some of which no longer exist. Disused of previous functions, Beirut’s station has evolved from an industrial site and transportation hub into an overgrown ruin that carries tangible and intangible values. Read as an ensemble, the station, its rail yards and the entire derelict railway lines of East Beirut, should be envisioned as a continuous landscape with an adaptive reuse potential and that could constitute a significant green public space and cultural heritage opportunity for the city of Beirut. The study explores three dimensions. Transcending several historical periods, with construction spanning from the end of the 1890’s through the first and second world wars, connecting Beirut to Damascus and later on to Haifa in 1942, the railway witnessed the country’s recent political history. Traversing different landscapes typologies, coastal, rural and mountainous, the railway had an effect on the urban morphology and moulded railway towns and estivation destinations. A vessel of industrial heritage reflecting human ingenuity and technological innovation, personal narratives of railway workers reveal social trajectories and a forgotten collective knowledge. Archiving the railway’s oral history before it is forever lost will be the milestone in identifying all the layers of this landscape’s legacy.

KEYWORDS: Lebanon railways, historic urban landscape, cultural landscape, industrial heritage, oral history, sense of place, adaptive reuse.

1

INTRODUCTION

The onset of rail transport, towards the end of the 18th century, connecting people and places illustrates a great example of technological ingenuity and human agency on the landscape. Shaping both physical and psychological spaces of mobility and accessibility, railway stations serve the function of social public spaces, where people from all realms of life meet [1]. In the historic urban landscape (HUL) approach, the city is read and interpreted as a continuum in time and space, where countless populations perpetually leave their mark [2]. Cultural properties are defined by the UNESCO as those that represent ‘the combined works of nature and of man’ [3]. This paper represents the culmination of six years of investigation into the oral history of the derelict Lebanese railway. With a lack of published literature on the subject, the research methodology is based on oral narratives, field observations and archive analysis. By presenting a historical account of Mar Mikhael, once Beirut’s railway station, I aim to establish its significance as historical urban landscape. The paper also analyses the disused railway network as an ensemble with all its infrastructural components, as it has evolved from a displacement route into a series of wilderness sites, industrial relicts and greenways all carrying both tangible and intangible cultural values [2,4].

A walk in Mar Mikhael today unveils an overgrown ruin, disused of previous functions, nevertheless reflecting the genus loci of a place from a bygone era, and a vessel of past human 1

ingenuity and technological innovation. Transcending several historical epochs with construction spanning from the end of the 1890’s, while Lebanon was part of the Ottoman empire, through the French Mandate (1920-1943), and the first and second world wars, the railway connected Beirut to regional neighbouring urban centres, Damascus in 1895 and Haifa in 1942 [5]. Clogged by the Palestinian Israeli conflict in 1948, and later on usurped by militias during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), the railway graduated fell into disuse altering the nature of regional mobility [6]. Built in 1895, Mar Mikhael shaped the urban geography of the neighbourhood and contributed to its industrial character [7]. Today, only a small section of the station serves as the headquarters of the Railway and Public Transport Authority, an obsolete public administration; Lebanon has not witnessed rail transit since 1976, and is served by a meagre public bus network [8]. Starting 2009, creative industries began implanting their workshops and boutiques in the station’s neighbourhood, triggering a rapid process of gentrification [9]. Newcomers praise the industrial and authentic character of the neighbourhood on the one hand, while on the other, old residents are pushed away to further peripheries due to rocketing inflated real estate values [7]. Secluded from Armenia Street, the main artery traversing the neighbourhood, and delimitated by a bus junkyard and a concrete wall that acts as a barrier between the station site and the Northern Highway, Charles Helou, the station is not discernible in the neighbourhood, except for those who know that its exists. Early in 2014, the site was leased to a private company, transforming its centenary locomotives, worthy of museum collections, and rail yards into a venue for summer nightlife and social functions, the only ‘public’ use the station has witnessed in the last 30 years, despite numerous proposals for adaptive reuse from experts, and activists.

I argue that the station, its rail yards, and the entire lines of Eastern Beirut and the Naqoura Beirut Tripoli (NBT) marshalling yard in Furn El Chubayk, should be envisioned as a historical urban landscape ensemble connecting very separate and different neighbourhoods, namely Mar Mikhael and Furn El Chubayk. To that end, the objectives of this paper become twofold. The first is to demonstrate that the station was the historical catalyst to the formation of the urban and social fabric of the Mar Mikhael neighbourhood. It is by highlighting its layered social and political history that its significance as HUL can be established and that the preservation of its industrial landscape site can be envisioned. Second, the paper aims to highlight the wealth of human, industrial, natural and cultural heritage of the Lebanese railways widening the scope of heritage beyond single monuments, and proposing potential adaptive reuses for this naturally evolved landscape. This is of relevance to Lebanon and the Arab region at large, as there is a lack of cultural heritage sites recognized as such [10] (figure 1).

Figure 1. Mar Mikhael disused railway station, Beirut, Lebanon [Yassine, 2009]

2

A SENSE OF PLACE

This brief historical account highlights Mar Mikhael as a historic urban landscape and an organically evolved relic ensemble providing the neighbourhood with its character and memory [11].

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 2

2.1

The Memory of ‘Beirut Gare’

‘When I was 15, in April of the year 1895, I entered the service of the Société Ottomane du chemin de fer économique de Damas-Hama et Prolongements (DHP) as an apprentice metal worker (‘ajusteur’ in French) at ‘Beirut Gare’ (Mar Mikhael station in French, as referred to by railway workers), narrates André Cappel, who worked on the Beirut Damascus line as a locomotive driver until 1940, according to his memoires [12]. Drawing on Irina Bokova’s understanding of HUL at the World Urban Forum 2012, intangible heritage values are sources of social cohesion, factors of diversity and drivers of creativity and innovation [2]. Oral history and personal memoirs are intangible values that should be archived and documented and revisited in creative forms. Historical analysis of past land uses for the site, show that preceding the construction of the station in 1895, the area East of ‘Bayrout al Qadimat’ (walled Beirut) acted as the centre’s surrounding agricultural country side planted with olive, mulberry, fig, carob, vines, vegetables orchards and cereals. [13,14] (Figure 2).

Niched between two natural water bodies, the Beirut River to the East, and the Mediterranean Sea to the North, the station and its rail yards rested on a plain, creating an Eastern industrial ensemble at the edge of the city’s bustling economic centre, the Hamidiya Square (later Bourj Square, now Martyrs’ square) [15,5]. Declared an Ottoman provincial capital in 1888, Beirut witnessed numerous changes during the second half of the 19th century [5]. Founded in 1887 the ‘Companie du Port, des Quais et des Entrepots de Beyrouth’, enlarged the port in 1890, transforming Beirut from a walled provincial harbour town in the Eastern Mediterranean to an open, commercial city of regional importance’ in the Levant [16,17]. The urban geography of the city was evolving with the onset of mass rural exodus triggered by sectarian unrest in the mountain’s hinterland [18]. This contributed to an increase in the city’s population from 10,000 in 1840 to 80,000 in 1880 [19]. The quarantine, built in 1834, adjacent to the port docks set a spatial precedent to the industrial character of the Medawar area (also referred to as Karantina) [20]. With the continuous arrival of new populations of Kurds, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese, the first urban slum of Beirut sprawled to encompass slaughter houses and small scale steel, metal and wood industries. The area’s population was spatially mobile, and thus, Karantina become an area for those in transit, assuming fearing its industrial and destitution character [20,11].

Figure 2. Mar Mikhael Station in Beirut circa 1895, Lebanon [15] The railway added yet another layer to the changing urban landscape. The industrial character prompted by the port and the quarantine, now strengthened by the rail yards seeped into the Mar Mikhael neighbourhood. The Maronite parish of Saint Michel, established in 1855 gave the neighbourhood its appellation and the quarantine, the railway, the port and the tramway built in 1906, all attracting man labour made the area accessible and gradually a transit node, East of the centre [7, 13]. During the period of the French mandate, spanning through 1920 to 1943, the arrival of the first wave of Armenian refugees fleeing the massacres of the 1915 genocide, began to mould the social geography of Mar Mikhael. First installed in shack camps at Karantina, Armenian quarters

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 3

began forming in Mar Mikhael, Geitawi, Karm El Zaitoun and beyond the Beirut River, Bourg Hammoud [21]. In 1933, a major fire, but also sanitation issues due to outbreak of malaria and plague in the overpopulated Karantina camps, accelerated this process [7, 22]. According to Davie, until the 1930’s the area East of the historical centre retained its agricultural land use, albeit a few scattered agricultural suburban habitat typologies, or ‘Koukh’. She adds that it was only when another wave of rural exodus of Greek Catholics and Orthodox populations from the North Lebanese mountains arrived, that the area began to become densely inhabited [23]. The stations western neighbourhoods, Gemmayzeh and Saifi, had also begun to sprawl with merchants and notables establishing mansions and villas with gardens. Mar Mikhael was connected to the bustling centre and beyond via the tramway and to the hill of Ashrafiyeh by numerous stairs [7]. Today still, Armenia Street, Mar Mikhael’s dominating artery illustrates the architectural layers of Beirut, where the flâneur can indulge in an array of housing typologies from the central bay house to neo traditional styles and even some modernist constructions [19] (figure 3). The mental landmarks of the area vary between old and new viewers. However some iconic structure are ubiquitous in the memory of all, such as the EDL Electricity of Lebanon headquarters, the once Vendome cinema, but most of all, the ‘Jisr el Hadid’ railway steel bridge, that still protrudes outside the station, and remains the only visual remnant of the railway, on the main street weaving together the memories of old and new [8].

Figure 3 Beirut transit network circa 1950, Lebanon [15]

2.2

Storied Politics

According to Alpin, ‘though the strength of human imprint varies’, the cultural landscape ‘reflects interaction between people expressed through their cultural, economic and natural systems’ [24]. He adds, that such systems are ‘recognizable and enduring providing a sense of place’ and that the ‘economic, social and political reasons for which the landscape was created are still valid and capable to be reproduced’ in a contemporary context [24]. Unravelling the political context in which the railway was constructed spanning several epochs will highlight that the economic, geopolitical and strategic reasons that led to its construction in the 1890’s endure today.

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 4

In 1891 the Ottoman Empire granted the French established DHP Company a concession to build the Beirut Damascus railway [25]. Earlier from 1839 to 1876, the Ottoman Tanzimat, a series of administrative and infrastructural reforms through the empire had seen the establishment of the first post offices and telegraph network, an attempt to secure territorial integrity in response to its slow decline [26]. Both French and British forces had foreseen the opportunity of investigating capital in the region, and in acquiring concessions to construct a railway network connecting strategic trade and pilgrimage routes through the empire [15]. The French envisioned the railway to connect Beirut’s port to the Syrian hinterland, thereby providing the city of Damascus with transit access and an opening onto the Mediterranean shore [5]. This also came as a response to the proposed JaffaDamascus British railway project [27]. The very first train left ‘Beirut gare’ on August 3rd 1895, and arrived in Damascus after a 9 hours and a 147 kilometres journey. Traversing various landscape typologies, first running along the marshland of the Beirut river and then starting its ascension towards the mount Lebanon range stopping at Hadath, Baabda, Aley, Bhamdoun, Sofar, the 1.05 m narrow gauge AB rack railway descended into the Bekaa stopping at Rayak railway station, before heading to Damascus. Later on, the railway network expanded along the old routes of Beirut, the Damascus Road, the Old Saida Road and the Tripoli Road, connecting the hinterland to coastal cities. By 1906 the DHP had built another track connecting Rayak to Homs, Hama and Aleppo. And th with the construction of the Hedjaz Railroad Line at the beginning of the 20 century, Beirut was connected to Medina, on the Hedjaz pilgrimage route via Damascus [10]. In 1911, local entrepreneurs in Tripoli established an anonymous company to fund the construction of a standard gauge railway between Tripoli and Homs. In the 1930’s the Orient Express arriving from Paris terminated at Istanbul and from there on, the Taurus Express took over terminating in Tripoli. Trips between Paris and Beirut became possible [6, 15]. In the 1940’s, the allied troops extended the railway from Tripoli via Beirut to Haifa because the British envisioned a direct link between their Haifa base and the northern Syrian railway terminating in Tripoli. And as of 1942 regular military traffic began on the Haifa Beirut Tripoli line. From Haifa passengers could continue their journey by train to Cairo, and Beirut became the transit link between Europe and Africa [27] (figure 4). In 1961, the railway network became nationalized and the CEL, Chemin de Fer de l’Etat Libanais was established. The railway witnessed the onset of the Lebanese civil war in the mid 1970’s. Local newspaper archives offer a detailed chronology that portrays severe sabotaging of the railways. In 1975, the Beirut Damascus railway line stopped running, and in 1979 the coastal railway suffered from severe e attacks [15]. One by one, Beirut, Rayak, Tripoli and most stations became sectarian militia barricades delimiting sectors. Vandalised, railway sites and properties were used as army bases, prisons and torture grounds. As the war lingered, the railway became totally non-operational until in 1991, when railway workers repaired parts of the coastal railway between Beirut and Byblos to operate the ‘Peace Train’, in an attempt at reconciliation to symbolize the end of the civil war [28].

Short-lived, the initiative lasted months, and marked the last train journey on the Lebanese railways.

Figure 4. The complete railway network, circa 1950 [15]

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 5

According to Sauer, ‘man behaving in accordance with the norms of his culture, performs work on the physical and biotic feature of his natural surroundings and transform them into the cultural landscape’ [29]. In that sense, the Lebanese railway legacy constitutes a significant transportation and communication network, an ambitious Western political and economic project in the Levant, spanning several strategic periods and characterised by continuous confrontation between East and the West [10].

3

ORAL ACCOUNTS ON INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

3.1

A continuous landscape

A relic organically evolved landscape is one in which an evolutionary process came to an end at some time in the past, but whose significant distinguishing features are however still visible in material form [30]. The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) defines the former as remains of industrial culture of historical, technological social and architectural value. These remains may include buildings, machinery, workshops, transportation infrastructure, but also entire industrial landscapes as well as documentation of the industrial society and culture [31]. Looking at the UNESCO world heritage list, industrial heritage sites such as the Semmering railway with an inscription dating to 1998, and communication networks sites such as the Chang’an- Tianshan silk road recently inscripted in 2014, set a precedent to highlight both the tangible and intangible cultural values of similar sites [32]. The village and railway systems of Paranapiacaba in the Serra do Mar Mountain Range in Sao Paulo Brazil awaiting inscription, set an example of how railway and adjacent village can be treated as en ensemble [33]. In Lebanon alas, the destiny of this industrial legacy has been one of abandon. Deserted stations are left without protection measures, exposed to on-going vandalism, but also to weather variations, arguably strengthening their fossil character and ruin aesthetics. Today the abandoned railway stations and rail yards across Lebanon constitute a significant industrial heritage, that has to be thoroughly surveyed, identified and preserved as it combines at once characteristics of a transport route and a naturally evolved fossil landscape. Archiving and documenting the oral history of railway workers before it is forever lost will be the milestone in identify this landscape legacy.

Of significant importance to the industrial legacy of Lebanon, is the town of Rayak. An agriculture village prosperous in silk trading, prior to the advent of the railway, Rayak became a transit node at the end of the Beirut Damascus line [34]. Following the introduction of vapour engines into local industries in 1895, the Rayak railway repair workshop flourished and started being used as an apprentice site for all mechanical engineers and craftsmen, specifically those attending the Sanayeh technical school [34, 35] (Figure 5). The electrical tramway, the telegraph, and street lighting infrastructure installed in Beirut stating the early 1900’s, revolutionized urban mobility and the quality of the street, but also promoted the use of pulley systems extending to most industrial practices [35]. In 1910 according to local accounts, the DHP became self sufficient in fabricating locomotives spare parts at Rayak. Other oral accounts relate the possible invention of water pit engines, and a type of coal, the Rayak coal, which was added to boiler’s water to prevent explosion due to lime percolating into steam machine [35]. Some narrate an anecdote on misfortune: Mohamed Makaroun Lebanese craftsman from Rayak may according to them have invented the Turbo engine but to his dismay, a French engineer may have been faster in published a licence asserting the authenticity of his work [35].

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 6

Figure 5. Rayak railway station, Bekaa, Lebanon [Yassine, 2013] Oral accounts do not only attest to the industrial legacy, they also prove that the railway was a way of life to many generations, a source of pride, conveying privileges and numerous encounters of local and foreign cultures, bringing about a transfer of knowledge and skills, between concession and construction companies and local work force. A now deceased railway worker remembers his encounter with Lawrence of Arabia, when one day in Rayak, an English speaking man, presented himself at his door, tiered and wounded. Worried about his health, the railwayman offered him food and shelter, but found him to have dispread the next morning. Months later, the same foreigner presented himself with British army clothes at the door of the station’s officer in Rayak, thanking him for his hospitality, and introducing himself as Colonel Lawrence of Arabia [36]. Over the years, the ‘railway became my way of life, says Hrant and for years after I retired I could not find my way to sleep, as I longed to the swaying movement of the train that used to put me to sleep on board the Companie Internationale des Wagons - Lits was I was employed by the Thomas Cook companies train conduction between Beirut and Aleppo. [37]. Whether all those personal narratives can be labelled as ‘industrial legends’ or facts, it is certain that further investigation into their authenticity is needed, but nevertheless those stories should be recorded as part of the railway oral history.

3.2

Mar Mikhael derelict station

The railway promoted the flourishing of a generation of skilled draftsmen. Nubar Mangassarian, originally Armenian in his late 80’s today, has preserved a collection of his hand drawn elevations and plans, but also technical drawings for spare parts and tools. Like many railway workers who became the railway guardians during the civil war, Nubar salvaged his drawing table and utensils from the CEL headquarters, then at Souk El Tawili, in Beirut’s central souks and commercial district, fearing that they would be stolen or vandalized [38]. He also confirmed that railway documentation was always annotated in French, which explains the use of French terminology amongst the remaining railway workers [38]. Those have not only salvaged a wealth of railway archives, but also their former railway ID cards which according to oral accounts, would allow them to travel by train anywhere without payment and simply upon presenting the card at train station ticket offices [39]. Bechara Assi, first discovered the railway as a young boy in the 1950’s, when he accompanied his uncle to Beirut Gare in Mar Mikhael [40]. Today his personal account of the place where he worked daily from the early 1960’s until 2011, when he retired, is still vivid and full with memories. Assi speaks fondly about the Mar Mikhael clock, labelling it the ‘religion of the railway’. Restored in 2002, the clock was designed by ‘Paul Garnier de Paris’, in the 1920’s, a mechanical clock with tree quadrants constituting a significant mechanical heritage [15].

The traveller’s waiting hall at Mar Mikhael was built in 1895 based on a design drawing by the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM), which was the case for all stations along the Beirut Damascus line [15]. According to Tendjoukian, the only significant modification was in the treatment of the roof in Mar Mikhael, as it was conceived in a manner to adapt to local climate. This provides the building with its own architectural identity, which beyond its incontestable historical value illustrates an example of a unique typology mixing PLM design to local heritage [12]. Beyond Beirut, the railway heritage includes an array of bridges, tunnels, and viaducts but also wooden and steel steles commemorating construction dates and important historic military

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 7

events. Victim of vandalism these inscriptions carry the symbols of companies some that have ceased to exist, and are a live testimony to the rich economic and political history of the railway.

Railway enthusiasts have also expressed their interest in the railway and their heritage. Ron Zeil travelled to Lebanon in the 1970’s on a research trip for his book ‘Twiligh of the World Steam’ to document the scenic photographic journey on the Lebanese railway, across the mountains and on the coast [41]. Today the remaining locomotive rolling stock is in a state of total abandon and negligence. It includes rare specimens of Swiss made ‘SLM S’, and ‘SLM B’ in Rayak and Beirut, but also German G8 and G7 locomotives, which according to Friends of the Tripoli railway station are featured in the treaty of Versailles as reparations, owed by the Ottomans to the French after the First World War [6] (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Mar Mikhael Station main building [Yassine, 2009] In Mar Mikhael, the railway disappears into the ground and nature coils around bullet-speckled locomotives as if to protect them from rusting and time [5]. In all three major stations, water-cooling cranes, railway turntables and concrete sleepers amongst other elements constitute a fossil cultural landscape. The oral accounts collected and featured represent only a glimpse of the wealth of stories that can be cited on the Lebanese railway and its industrial heritage. Like an onion with many layers, the railway story has to be highlighted layer by layer as it weaves together architecture, industry, history, politics and landscape

4

THE RAILWAY AS SOCIAL SPACE

Travel by rail is at once a social yet solitary experience. Wagons are mobile public spaces, where people meet to be transported from location A to location B [1]. At the same time, waiting for the train on the platform, along with fellow travellers, sharing the same space creates a mutual consensus for tolerance, respect and acceptance. Station platforms thus become public spheres, where interaction becomes possible [1]. The London Transport’s Art on the Underground and Busking schemes illustrate a great example where a city has identified this potential and capitalized on it [42].

In the 1940’s, Hashim El Madani took the train from Saida, a coastal Mediterranean town south of Beirut, to Haifa in Palestine to become a photographer. After an apprentice at a Jewish photography studio, he returned to his hometown to practice his trade. A novelty for Saida at the time, he took weekly promenades on the railway to promote portraiture. At the time promenading, ‘Sayaran’ or ‘Tanazoh’ in Arabic, was common in Saida, and the railway constituted an accessible, free, open space, where people would gather and buy sugar candy and coffee from ambulant merchants [43]. Starting 1948, at the onset of the Palestinian Israeli conflict, the line connecting Beirut to Haifa was discontinued from then on the Southern line ended in Naqoura and the line was referred to as NBT (Naqoura Beirut Tripoli) [27].

At the advent of the Beirut Damacus railway, towns became more accessible, as a result estivation towns developed along the line giving birth to estivation villages in Sofar and Bhamdoun, in the Mount Lebanon Governorate. At an altitude of more than 1000 meters, pure air and views overlooking the Lamartine valley, made those village very desirable places for the Lebanese

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 8

bourgeoisie society to build summer villas. In Sofar, the station was erected facing the Grand Hotel a symbol of regional elegance, built in 1890 and attracting elites, and gamblers from Lebanon and the th middle east each summer until the outbreak of the civil war in 1975. Towards the begin of the 20 century, Anbara Salam al-Khalidi took the train to Sofar to spend her summer holidays with her family. She recalls that ‘sellers would rush to the windows producing baskets full of summer fruits, thin bread and yogurt and that young children would also wave some newspapers, magazines, and translated novels, mostly Sherlock Holmes’. She adds, ‘I got to know those for the first time in the train and my siblings and I would indulge in them with such voracious appetite that we would finish them before the journey came to an end’ [44]. Others reminisce about childhood days in Sofar when they perfected the technique of flattening coins to use in flipper machines, by placing them on railway tracks when a train was approaching [45]. For others, who were in their teenager years when the train was still running, its slow pace from Beirut to Tripoli was the perfect venue for flourishing romances [46].

The story of the railway is also strongly impregnated with the memory of war and military presence, with construction spanning both world wars and obsolescence brought about during the Lebanese civil war. ‘Safar Barleck’, a Lebanese film directed in the 1960’s and featuring Lebanon’s iconic female performer Fayrouz, depicts rural Lebanon in 1914, under Ottoman control. The film portrays Ottoman’s mandatory militarization of Lebanese farmers to take part in the war. The train, ubiquitous throughout the film can be interpreted as a symbol of foreign dominance as it is pictured transporting Ottoman army, Lebanese prisoners and rebels planning to ambush the tracks [47].

During the Second World War, Assad Namrood locomotive driver, evokes his memories of Rayak when he was transported by train with his family to a nearby village, as Rayak’s military airport was under attack, confirming that the station’s factory was used for fabrication of plane spare parts [39].

The civil war in Lebanon not only produced significant physical damage and generated human loss, but also changed patterns of mobility in the city. As Beirut retreated into Christian East and Muslim West, the no man’s land that slid in between those two poles formed the demarcation green line, overtaken by plants. Mar Mikhael, situated at the proximity of Karentina, were a tragedy took place in 1976, causing the loss of a 1,500 lives, carried the burden of such memories and became a enclave during the war, as it was disconnected from its bustling economic centre. Today, war memories persist in the neighbourhood and some remember the station as a grim place.

Understanding the collective memory of the war, the status of degraded public transport policies and public space amenities, are important steps in triggering a debate about the role of public space in relation to mobility. Adaptive reuse proposals for the railway, encompassing multi-functional uses could contribute to reconcile disconnected spaces.

5

MAR MIKHAEL: NEXT STOP MUSEUM PARK?

5.1

Formation of a ruin

In the adaptive reuse approach, creativity and imagination are tools to discover fresh possibilities in old forms, fuelling dormant vestiges with a new life [48]. Helpland writes that in 1993, ‘the abandoned rail corridor of the Vincennes Railways in Paris became the Promenade Plantée, like the Highline of New York, it was slated for demolition but instead was reimagined as a linear park that extends from near the Place de la Bastille to the city’s peripheral boulevard’ [48]. The HUL recognizes that post-industrial age has brought to life industrial remnants with great adaptive reuse potential, not only valued for their historical and ecological significance but also for their potential to become catalyst for regeneration and social change.

Today green prevails in Mar Mikhael vestigial station. At the mercy and whims of water, wind, gravity and passing animals the station was colonized by flora [49]. And as primary succession took place, opportunistic plants sprouted and spread on its site along Eucalyptus and Ficus trees once planted by the DHP company gardeners. Picon asserts that ‘through the works of man, nature found itself simultaneously exposed and transfigured’ [50]. What happens when infrastructure loses its function? A technological landscape emerges inverting that relationship between ‘man-constructed’ and nature. First construction violates nature, and then when the reason for construction becomes obsolete and the function abandoned, nature takes over again, and thus the technological landscape, the product of man, surrenders itself progressively to nature in the form of a ruin [50].

Without any sort of intervention, as is today, Mar Mikhael, abandoned for the past 30 years has become an ecological patch in the neighbourhood harbouring wildlife, including small rodents and bats. Located on the crucial eastern flyway, it hosts Beirut’s resident birds, but also biyearly a population of migratory birds [51]. Mar Mikhael is also a paradise for insects, especially pollinators

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 9

that thrives during springtime. The station’s disused railway extends outside the station’s weaving its site to the abandoned railway, now greenway that spans through a residential neighbourhood before it is abruptly suspended in the void beneath the Yerevan rapid way, thus disconnecting Mar Mikhael form the marshalling yard at NBT. 5.2 Cinematic experiences According to Helphand, ‘to create a consistent surface with a minimal grade, tracks were raised over their surrounding terrain on embankments, viaducts, above bridges, and when necessary, there were cuts and tunnels burrowed through the earth’ [48]. In 1898, the French journalist J. Parisot travelled across Lebanon and in the journal ‘Across the World’ he attested to the splendour of the Beirut Damascus rail journey, describing the landscape as one of the most scenic he had seen a railway traverse [27]. Departing from Beirut facing the Mediterranean the railway crossed the Beirut River riparian ecosystem, now open sewer, and ascended the mountains before descending into the fertile Bekaa valley. Several cultural features may be found within a cultural heritage landscape [4]. A train journey creates both viewscapes, line of sight from a specific location to a landscape, and but also view sheds defined as a panorama from a given vantage point [4]. Both the coastal and mountain lines traverse equally scenic panoramas that have cinematic quality and evoke nostalgia amongst those who miss the lost views (figure 7). Citizens of Tripoli remember illegally jumping on slow freight trains on summer days to reach the beaches of Chekka, enjoying the stunning view of the Mediterranean coast, while other reminisce about studying on the railway line as they crossed orange orchards [52, 53]. Such scenic views constitute a great potential for trails and greenways, temporary or permanent.

Figure 7: Beirut -Tripoli costal railway [Yassine, 2013]

5.3 Adaptive reuse Around the world, planner are emphasising on reusing abandoned railways as a tool for preserving environmental qualities of a landscape as well as structures for leisure resources [54].

Defined as linear right of ways, where the site has environment quality and provides a route for humans, animals or natural processes, greenways have acquired a multifunctional dimension [55].

Treated as an integrated ensemble, the sites of Mar Mikhael, the steel bridges, the rail yards and the marshalling yard at NBT, could become a significant linear green space encompassing two distinct green patches connected by an ecological corridor [56]. With less than 5% of green spaces, Beirut lacks quality green spaces, and as such Mar Mikahel is envisioned in figure 8 as a multi functional insular green public space. With its diverse elements and rich material palette including gravel, high and low grass, concrete and asphalt, several iterations for open, eco-museums can also be envisioned. The European Greenway Association, underlines the economic and social benefit of adaptive reuse [57]. Physical reclamation of abandoned sites such as the High Line has spurred the revival of a dormant social and cultural practice, that of purposeless walking and experiencing the city [48]. The single attribute of every element of the Mar Mikhael and NBT ensemble could confer a sensory, and visual experience, conjuring memories and other fantasies [54].

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 10

Figure 8: An example of an adaptive reuse proposal for Mar Mikhael station, not to scale [9]

6

CONCLUSION

The historic urban landscape heritage management approach is founded on the ‘recognition and identification of a layering’ and weaving of values ‘natural and cultural, tangible and intangible’ [55]. Looking at the criteria to assess cultural landscapes, Beirut’s former railway station Mar Mikhael can be recognized as a historic urban landscape. Treated as an entity in the city, connecting different spaces and neighbourhoods, it constitutes a vessel of industrial heritage that is significant to the understanding of the history of places and people that it is associated to. Endangered and neglected, the derelict Lebanese railway network in its totality should be established as a cultural landscape of national and regional significance. Owned by the Lebanese Railway and Public Transport Company, Office des Chemin de Fer et des Transports en Communs (OCFTC), a semi public autonomous entity under the umbrella of the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, the railway remains abandoned today, while issues pertaining to its property rights remain ambiguous and in need of further investigation. What’s more, it does not fall under the jurisdiction of the General Department of Antiquities, or under any heritage or conservation list. Revealing the political and historical context that lead to its construction, but also the oral narrative of its former railway workers before they are forever lost constitutes a first step in unravelling its tangible and intangible values. Yearly, there is news of plans to rehabilitate part of the rail lines, and transport expert proposals for a modern public transport network for Beirut are affluent. The stations and the railways remain however unpreserved and exposed to vandalism. Mar Mikhael, a significant relic landscape in Beirut, that carries layers of social, political, industrial and natural values, is today used as a nightlife venue, despite numerous adaptive reuse proposals to the OCFTC, as the railway has been an on-going interest for student research work, non governmental organizations and rail enthusiasts, all differing in their visions, yet all acknowledging the wealth of heritage layers that the site bears. I argue that highlighting such a piece of heritage in Beirut, could be a milestone in forging a discourse about the memory of places, about mobility, the image of the city and the meaning of public space and nature in the urban realm.

REFERENCES [1] Tonnelat, S. (2010). The sociology of urban public spaces. In Wang H., Savy M., & Zhai G. (Eds.), Territorial Evolution and Planning Solution: Experiences from China and FranceParis: Atlantis Press. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/313641/The_Sociology_of_Urban_Public_Spaces [2] New Life for Historic Cities The historic urban landscape approach explained. (2014). UNESCO. Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/1026/

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 11

[3] Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. ( 2005). United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide05-en.pdf [4] Cultural heritage resources document. (2004). Heritage resources center and the region of Waterloo Retrieved from http://uwaterloo.ca/heritage-resources-centre/sites/ca.heritage-resourcescentre/files/uploads/files/12%20Region%20CHL%20-%20with%20title%20page_0.pdf [5] Yassine, S. L. (2012). A hidden landscape. In Mashallah News , & AMI (Eds.), Beirut recollected (pp, 85-95). Beirut: Tamyras.

[6] Yassine, S. L ( 2011). Tripoli’s Sleeping Beauty. Mashallah News , Retrieved from accessed http://mashallahnews.com/?p=5730 [7] Liatard, F. (2011). Beyrouth, Ville ‘ Creative’? (Unpublished master’s thesis) Univesrity of Bordeaux, France [8] Yassine, S.L. (2006). Public transit in Beirut: state failure? (Unpublished master’s thesis) London School of Economics and Political Sciences, United Kingdom [9]Yassine, S.L (2009). Next Stop I am a Museum. [Installation]. Beirut, 98 Weeks workshop on Mar Mikhael [10] Abu Khafajah, S & Al Rabady. (2013). The Hijazi railroad line: a Cultural landscape of a world heritage quality. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/1219541/The_Hijazi_Railline_a_cultural_landscape_with_world_he ritage_quality [11] Lynch, K. (1960). Image of the city. Cambrige, London: M.I.T Press [12] Cappel, A. (undated). Mes 46 années de service au chemin de fer D.H.P retrieved from http://www.afacliban.org/AFAC-LIBAN/Accueil.html [13] Davie, M. (1996). Bayrout al qadîmat : une ville Arabe et sa Banlieue a la fin du XVIIeme siècle.

National museum news, London, (No 3, Fall 1996) Retrieved from http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/900/902/MAY-Davie/Bayrout-al-Qadimat.html e

[14] Sfeir-Khayat, J. (1996). Beyrouth au milieu du XIX siècle: naissance d’un centre. In Arnaud J-L, Beyrouth, Grand Beyrouth. (pp, 51-62). Presses de Presses de l’Ifpo. Retrieved from http://books.openedition.org/ifpo/3219 [15] AFAC-LIBAN: Section Libanaise de l’Association Française des Amis des Chemins de fer.

(2008). Retrieved from http://www.afacliban.org/AFAC-LIBAN/Accueil.html [16] Makhzoumi, J & Zako, R. (2007). The Beirut dozen: Traditional domestic garden as spatial and th cultural mediator. Proceedings of the 6 International Space Syntax Symposium Istanbul, 2007 [17] Babikian, C. (1996). Developpement du Port de Beyrouth et Hinterland. In Arnaud J-L, Beyrouth, Grand Beyrouth. (pp, 25-34) Presses de Presses de l’Ifpo. Retrieved from http://books.openedition.org/ifpo/3232 [18] Eddé , C. (1996). Beyrouth, le Mont-Liban et ses environs au xixe siècle : pratiques de l’espace. (p 35-49). Presses de Presses de l’Ifpo. Retrieved from http://books.openedition.org/ifpo/323 [19] Saliba, R. (1998). Beirut 1920-1940. Domestic Architecture Between Tradition and Modernity.

The Order of Engineers and Architects, Beirut [20] Falakha, Y. (2014). Cultural catalyst: activating open spaces in the Medawar area Final Year Project (Unpublished final year project). American University of Bierut, Lebanon.

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 12

[21] Hediger D., & Lukic A (2009). The Armenian Quarters in Beirut, Bourg Hammoud and Karm El Zeitoun (Unpublished student project) ETH Studio Basel, Contemporary City Institute Retrieved from http://www.studio-basel.com/projects/beirut/damascus/student-work/the-armenianquarters-in-beirut.html [22] Bourgey A., & Pharès J. (1973). Les bidonvilles de l’agglomeration de Beyrouth Geography de Lyon l 48(2), (pp. 107 -139)

Revue de

[23] Davie, M. (2004). Maisons traditionnelles de Beyrouth : typologie, culture domestique, valeur patrimoniale. Association pour la Protection et la Sauvegarde des Anciennes demeures (APSAD), Beyrouth & Centre d’Histoire de la Ville Moderne et Contemporaine, Université François-Rabelais de Tours. Retreived from http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/900/902/MAY-Davie/maisons-I/html/ [24] Aplin, G (2007). World Heritage Cultural Landscapes. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 13(6) (pp. 427-446) [25] Eleftériadès, E. (1944). Les chemins de fer en Syrie et au Liban.

[26] Kassir, S. (2003). Histoire de Beyrouth Paris: Fayard [27] Al Mashriq, The Levant (2009). The Lebanese Railways. Retrieved from http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/380/385/railways/index.html [28] Chehab, A. (personal communication, 2013) [29] Sauer, C. O (1925). The Morphology of Landscape. In J. Leighley (Ed.), Land and Life: A Selection from the Writtings of C.O Sauer (pp. 315-350) Berkley: California University Press.

[30] UNESCO Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage.

(1972). Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/conventiontext/ [31] The International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage TICCIH. (2003).

Retrieved from http://ticcih.org/ [32] Semmering Railway (1998). UNESCO world Heritage list. Retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/785 [33] Ministry of Culture- Iphan, Sao Paulo, Brazil. (2014). Cultural landscape of Paranapiacaba.

UNESCO Tentative lists retrieved from http://whc.unesco.org/EN/TENTATIVELISTS/5878/ [34] Fikani, N. (1995). Rayak: Past and Present. (Unpublished student thesis). Lebanese University, Zahleh, Lebanon.

[35] Makaroun Y. (personal communication, 2013) [36] Dammous, G. (personal communciaiotn ,2013) [37] Der Manuelian, H. (personal communication, 2013) [38] Mangasarrian, N. (personal communication, 2013) [39] Namroud, A. (personal communication, 2013) [40] Assi, B. (personal communication, 2009) [41] Zeil, R. (personal communication, 2012) [42] Art on the Underground – Transport for London ( 2014). Retrieved from http://art.tfl.gov.uk/ [43] Madani, H. (personal communication, 2013)

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 13

[44] [12] Al Khalidi A.S. (1978). Memories of the trains in Lebanon (translated from Arabic) in Journey of Memories Between Lebanon and Palestine. (pp. 42-43) Beirut: al-Nahar lil Nashr, Retrieved from http://almashriq.hiof.no/lebanon/300/380/385/railways/resources/anbara_salam/index.html [45] Carpentier, P. (personal communication, 2012) [46] Hakim, S. (personal communication, 2013) [47] Phenecia Films & Barakat, H. (1967). Safar Barlik. Lebanon: United Trade and Cinema Company [48] Helphand, K. (2013). A new eye level: mnemonics of the high line. In Dion, M. Editor, On the Elevated Structure formerly and now know as the high line of the borough of Manhattan (pp, 30-37).

New York: Printed Matter, Inc and Friends of the High Line [49] Hauser, K. (2013). An elevated plain: an introduction to the High Line, then and now. In Dion, M. Editor, On the Elevated Structure formerly and now know as the high line of the borough of Manhattan (pp, 3-11). New York: Printed Matter, Inc and Friends of the High Line [50] Picon, A. (2000). Anxious landscape: from ruin to rust. Retrieved from http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/images/content/5/3/537796/fac-pub-picon-ruinerouille.pdf [51] Yassine, S.L & Ibrahim, J. (2014) (in press) Beirut Birdscapes. [ Poster] Portal 9 Journal. Issue 4 [52] Al Adhami, N. (personal communication, 2011) [53] Doumani, N. (personal communication, 2013) [54] Sarmento, J. (2002). The Geography of ‘disused railways’: What is happening in Portugal.

Finisterra XXXVII 74 (pp. 55-71) [55] Turner, T. (1998). Landscape Planning and Environmental Impact Design (2 Press

nd

ed). London: UCL

[ 56] Searns, R.M (1995). The evolution of greenways as an adaptive urban landscape form. Land and Urban Planning, 33(1-3) (pp. 65-80).

[57] The European Greenway Association (2000). http://www.aevv-egwa.org/site/hp_en.asp

Fifth International Cultural Landscape Conference Urban Cultural Landscape: Past; Present; Future Tehran, IRAN 14