Saydet Balamand Abbey

Located 16 km to the south-east of Tripoli, on the crest of the foothills of Mount Lebanon, 200 meters above sea level, the Cistercian abbey of Belmont[1] was founded in 1157 under the aegis of Frederick I Barbarossa. Juridically, it was under the authority of the Bishop of Beirut. The first buildings were erected in 1157 and 1169, then others were added in the XIII^th century, before 1289, the date of the Fall of Acre marking the final victory of the Mamluk over the Crusaders. The monks of Belmont are rarely cited in the chronicles of the Crusades, and no document on the life of the abbey or the extent of its lands has yet been discovered. No doubt because of its remote location, far from the communication routes and urban centres, the site does not seem to have been reoccupied by the Mamluk. It was only in 1609 that the orthodox monks returned to the monastery and restored it. It was remodelled during the XVIII^th and XIX^th centuries, and restoration work was done in the 1960s.

Built out of freestone, the abbey is an example of Cistercian architecture with the chapel, chapter house, refectory, kitchen, cellars and cisterns arranged around a central courtyard. The major modifications and additions introduced by the orthodox monks have not entirely changed its original appearance. On the north-west side of the cloister is a church with a single nave covered by a pointed barrel vault. Its nearly 2-meter thick walls are completely devoid of decorations, in accordance with Cistercian rules. Only a moulding adorns the vault transoms, extending into the apse and on the apertures of the main façade. There is a large pointed equilateral arch in the apse, while an oculus is placed on the opposite side above the chancel arch.

The stone bell tower, the only example from the Crusades era remaining in the Orient, rises from the eastern side of the nave above the apse arch. Square, it is covered by two vaults one above the other, and its sides have pointed equilateral bays whose moulded arches rest on abutments adorned with small columns. Although before 1274 the Cîteaux order did not in theory allow the construction of stone bell towers, it is likely that the tower of Balamand Abbey may in fact have been built earlier, given the progress of the Mamluk conquest at that time. An integral part of the original structure, it dates back, according to C. Enlart, to the middle of the XIII^th century.

The layout of the building suggests that the monastery was built on the foundations of a Byzantine church; a Byzantine capital supporting the baptism basin, and the north-east  orientation of the church support this hypothesis. Nevertheless, the architecture of the convent of Balamand follows the tradition of the European Cistercian monasteries, transplanted to the Holy Land as a result of the Crusades. Its layout echoes that of other Crusade churches in the region, such as the Cathedral of Tartus[2] and the Church of Saint Peter of Tiberiad. It would have been subjected to only minor local influence; only the dome that tops the bell tower reflects some Oriental influence. As a matter of fact, in the Occident, a pyramid is more often used instead of a dome, as can be seen on the bell towers of the Church of Notre-Dame des Doms (Avignon), Thoronet Abbey (Var) or Sananque Abbey (Gordes). The rose on the façade of the church no doubt had a stone framework, restored by C. Enlart, and which is reminiscent of the rose of the Church of Saint Catherine at Enfé. Oculi have been found in Umayyad palaces, such as at Khirbat al-Mafjar and Anjar, but it was through holy Frankish architecture that they appeared in Mamluk buildings, often placed over entrance doors as at the Ahmad al-Mihmandar[3] funeral complex and at the madrasa al-Qartawiyah[4], or associated with twin bays as in the Qala’un (1284-85) and Khayrbak (1520-21) mausoleums.

[2] Name given by the Crusaders to the city of Tartus.

[3] Cairo, 1324-1325

[4] Tripoli, 1316-1326