CITADELLE

Narrow streets lead to the houses located in the remains of the citadel. It must be carefully travelled to discover the organization of the Carolingian city.

Coming from the city centre, you can enter the site by taking a small street on the right, just before the Sea Food restaurant on the corniche. A deep porch allows you to reach a clear place. Prefer the evening to feel the relaxed atmosphere of the sea edges, with the women who go out the plastic chairs in the streets to chat between girlfriends, around a maté and a chicha, while the men on their side are on the terrace cafés to a few meters playing the trictrac, a glass of tea by hand.

It is the old heart of the citadel. The dungeon is clearly distinguished at the huge square base, the large hall where masters of the Temple order were gathered. On the east side of the road, you can reach the chapel which has preserved its beautiful portal with broken voussures. Further exploration allows you to appreciate other remains, the identification of which remains difficult (stores, walls?).

Tartous, like Overnight, Sergilla or Shabba, these historic places remain alive thanks to the population. The kids take the chapel as a playground, the vast vaulted spaces of the old meeting places seem to be best suited to the requirements of a football field. These places, a fleeting vision for the eye of the tourist, have thus remained living frameworks for a whole fringe of the inhabitants of Tartous, and that is what makes their charm. A pleasant break in one of the small cafés in the old town is recommended.

By leaving the opposite of the entrance, the main access of the fortress is achieved, one part of which houses a mosque. From here, to the east, you can bypass the citadel to admire the gap and the old ramparts transformed into buildings on the floor! Of course, the between in the citadel never lead far from the corniche. Moreover, long before the construction of the modern corniche, the dungeon was bathed by the sea, with food for example delivered directly from the sea to the strong square. It is difficult to design today because of the old dungeon there is not much left. Refait after the Muslim recapture, it is especially necessary at the end of the day, when the last rays of the twilight come to make her a powerful color. So, the dive head of the centuries behind, it's a little less difficult to put all these elements in their historical context.