LEBANESE PARLIAMENT

On the Place de l'Etoile is the Lebanese Parliament, built from 1932 to 1935. Its architect Mardiros Altounian also designed the Abed clock (1935). Before the Civil War, the Parliament also housed the National Library, but almost all of its impressive stock of 20,000 books burned down during the conflict. Some even describe soldiers warming themselves during the winter with multi-century-old manuscripts . The presence of this place of power explains why the city centre sometimes seems to be a veritable bunker...