Château de Beaufort [Archive]

Lebanese_bebe

February 24th, 2009, 10:28 AM

That's interesting...it looks like the site wasnt affected at all by the 2006 war OR the 1980s war. I still wonder what it once looked like when it was fully intact.

P.S. To all forumers, I have deleted all the OT posts that were in this thread so please avoid such discussions.

Actually most of the destruction to the fort is from recent times. If you look at French pictures of the castle in 1936 it was in better condition.

Between 1976 and 1982 it was occupied by the
Palestinians who attacked from this fortified point the North of
Israel. Between 1976 and 1980, dozens of raids were made on
the castle (raids from the Israelis).
On June 6th, 1982, it was heavily shelled (by the Israelis) before it fell
in the hands of Israelis on June 8 of that year. The destructions
we see nowadays date from that period. The Israeli army stayed
there and fortified the surroundings with bunkers and reinforced
concrete blocks.
Finally, in the year 2000, the Israeli army withdrew from the
castle after the attacks of the Lebanese resistance.
*Before they left they set off a number of explosives to destroy these bunkers and blocks that severely damaged the castle. Prior to this event Prime Minister Hoss begged the UN to stop the Israelis from destroying the Castle.

There is no text related to the castle before the arrival of the
crusaders. This rock crest overlooks the passage towards the
Syrian hinterland. It is difficult to imagine that there was not a
fortified point controlling this passage before the arrival of the
crusaders.
The texts say that Beaufort was deserted and taken by the
crusaders in 1139. A few years later, Beaufort was ruled by the
Lord of Saïda (Sagette). In the year 1179, a battle between
Baudoin IV and Saladin took place while Renaud de Sagette
was the master of the castle. Saladin took Beaufort in 1190,
after a one year siege. A few years later, before the arrival of
the Mamluks, Al Salih Ismaïl made a deal with the crusaders
and gave them the castle back in 1240. In 1260, Julien de
Sagette sold the castle of Beaufort to the Order of the Temple.
This order kept the castle until 1268. On that date, the Mamluk
Sultan Baibars besieged Beaufort and took it. Restoration
works and new constructions are attested in Arab texts.
The 14th, 15th and 16th centuries were calm.
In the 17th century, during the reign of Fakhreddine, a prince of
Lebanon, the castle became part of his fortified net. After the
defeat of Fakhreddine, the ottomans destroyed the upper
structures of the castle. Between 1616 and 1769, the area was
ruled by feudal families. In 1782 `Al jazzar governor of cAkka
(Saint Jean d'Acre) besieged the castle, took it and destroyed its
fortifications.
In 1837, an important earthquake destroyed many parts of the
castle. After this date, it became a quarry for the neighborhood
and a sheep-fold.
During the same period, in the late 19th century, the Orientalists
came and described the castle (successively Rey, Guérin,
Conder & Kitchener). The castle was quiet in that period.
After 1920, there was the French mandate on Syria and
Lebanon. The French emphasized on the crusader period sites.
The authorities began to consolidate and to restore these castles.
A first survey and documentation of the site was done in 1936

website about restoring project http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/26/40/14/PDF/Grussenmeyer_Yasmine_ISPRS_Istanbul2004.pdf