Baabda Palace

Baabda Palace (or Presidential Palace, French: Palais présidentiel de Baabda, Arabic: قصر بعبدا), is the official residence of the President of Lebanon. The palace was built in 1956 on a hill in the mountain town of Baabda overlooking the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The first President to reside in it was President Charles Helou.

The Baabda palace is surrounded by the Ministry of Defense and various other military posts. It started hosting ministerial meetings every other week after the usual venue of the ministerial meetings was abandoned due to security reasons in mid-2005. Now, the ministerial meetings are held in alternating order at Baabda Palace and the Grand Serail.

During his two years, 1988–1990, as Lebanon’s alternative Prime Minister Michel Aoun took up residence in the Baabda Palace surrounded by those troops from the Lebanese army who had remained loyal to him. The palace was subsequently severely damaged by the military conflicts of these two years. It was restored in the early nineties and President Elias Al Hrawi moved into it from his temporary presidential quarters.

Text adapted from “Baabda Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Baabda Palace ranks #2,484 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #7 of the 15 mapped in Lebanon. Founded 1956 — one of 177 atlas entries founded in the 20th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,162 times in the last 60 days, more than 68% of the atlas. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Beirut, 6 km away. It is one of the 109 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Levant. See how Lebanon compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗