About Us - جمعية تراثنا بيروت

Beirut Heritage Society is a Lebanese civil society the was registered under the name “Beirut, Our Heritage” (Turathuna Beirut) by decree of the Ministry of Interior No. 707.

The Society serves as an educational society that emphasizes mostly on all matters related to the Beiruti Heritage, its cultural significance and uniqueness across all dimensions, in addition to relevantly intersecting aspects on an Arab Scale.

In 2016, Dr. Suhail Mneimne, the founder and incumbent chairman of Beirut Heritage Society, started a Facebook page under the name “Beirut Heritage – تراث بيروت”, from where he began publishing various articles and posts, and intriguing stories, facts, and other articles that speak of the uniqueness of anything an everything related to the cultural heritage of Beirut and the hidden treasures in houses, literature, arts, poetry, architecture, music, Beiruti proverbs and terminologies particular to Beiruti’s and those that remain to be spoken by true Beiruti families to this very day, as well as historical events that gave Beirut its culturally valuable identity.

Through time, the Society’s page has had a tremendous amount of followers, both who come of Beiruti families and other regions in Lebanon and the Arab world, reaching 281,000 followers in a relatively short amount of time.

This move then developed into weekly meetings among several prominent Beiruti and Lebanese historians and researchers, whereby this circle has grown to include several talented enthusiasts and hobbyists interested in cultural aspects of Beirut such as photographs taken of the remaining heritage houses in Beirut, rare stamp collections, in addition to those specialized in creating old paintings of Beiruti homes and other artefacts.

These gatherings have turned into a growing feeling of nostaliga to days long gone that are only remembered as wonderful memories, laced with a great passion and the will to pass on this information, warming facts of the Beiruti culture to younger generations to keep this legacy alive, and keeping those memories passed on to those generations, lecturing about the goodness of those times and their simplicity.

The meeting circle has further developed into various general field activities among the founding members and followers and talented enthusiasts, which prompted the idea of registering the Society and it happened in 2019.

Our Mission

The mission of Beirut Heritage Society is to establish and sustain contact and reaching out to a generation that lacks the knowledge about the wealth and monuments of this ancient city except through a very poor collection of materials such as images and through information and stories passed on verbally through families. As the consecutive wars in Lebanon, and specifically those that impacted Beirut, from the period of the proclamation of the State of Grand Lebanon in 1920 until this very day. This series of events has exhausted the Beiruti families and made them lose the joy of bringing back fond memories. This effort is the cornerstone of the Society’s mission, as we work to restore and revive mass memories, intellectual and cultural elements of the City of Beirut against the elements that tend to erode its distinct identity.

Our Vision

Beirut Heritage Society thrives to spread awareness that advocates the importance of reviving the heritage and traditions of the city of Beirut, which is deeply-rooted within history, going back to what was written in the ancient voyagers’ journals more than 2,000 years ago, who have passed through the City of Beirut and resided either on short or long terms. These traditions have also been mentioned in several historians’ books and communications and observations of ambassadors and consuls who have witnessed the charm of this great city. Beirut has been celebrated through the words and verses of various poets, and equally through the paintings of some painters and artists, and which was captured through the lens of tourists through the passing of time. Not forgetting as well the preserved scriptures and documentations protected within the spiritual and civil courts, as well as in records of many government entities, which mention within their verdicts and writings the names of the families, neighbourhoods, and the city’s geography through deeds and contracts of land and estates purchases and sales.. Those are our sources of knowledge, in addition to what our verbal memories recited by our elders, who still enlighten our knowledge and life, God grant them long life and great health.

All this wealth of architectural, cultural, traditional, artistic heritage to the City of Beirut remains our main focus and passion in documenting them and making them available to researchers, academics, and enthusiasts in the present and the future, and to avail that knowledge to any of the younger and coming generations who are interested in learning about the living environment and habitat of their Beiruti ancestors throughout the ages.