Syria Today:  By  Malika Browne From royal palace to prison, Damascusأ¢â‚¬â„¢ citadel has been at the heart of administration in the capital for two millennia. Renovated and re-discovered, the fascinating site recently opened  it doors to the public for the first time.

When the doors of the Damascus citadel opened to the public in early July is may well have been  first time anyone has ever been warmly welcomed into the historic complex rather than forcefully repelled or incarcerated within it.

For the past two thousand years the site of the citadel has been home to a royal palace, a base for military garrisons, and most recently, an infamous prison. The Syrian government handed the citadel back to the city authorities by in 1986, and its opening will be the culmination of the first phase of a joint French-Syrian project of excavation and restoration begun in March 2000. Damascus gained a  fascinating and exciting new tourist attraction and cultural centre in the heart of the capital.

Edmond El-Ajj, Director of the Restoration Project for the Citadel of Damascus, walked me through the citadel. (Until recently, it wasn't clear which entrance we would use for visitors,) he explained. But following the excavation of a perfectly preserved 14th century arched stone bridge in front of the citadel's eastern gate, the decision was obvious.   

(No one knew it was there), says El-Ajj. (We are going to uncover it to show it to the visitor and make it the main way in). The Souk Asrouniyeh bustles around the entrance to this day, but the shops that used to line, and partly obscure, the citadel's eastern flank, have now gone.

Over the bridge, and the visitor steps into a small courtyard through a fortified iron door. Even the most jaded castle visitor could not fail to be amazed by the royal door to the right. The floral paintings on the muqarnas, the characteristic niches of Islamic architecture, above the royal entrance are bound to become the citadel's star attraction

 Hidden away behind wooden boards for many years, the existence of the Ottoman-period paintings in the 'cells' of the muqarnas was only revealed to restorers when they began to clean the door surround. The cleaning project took three years in total, during which time exquisite Ayubbid and Mameluk (12th and 13th centuries respectively) patterns were uncovered under the Ottoman ones. The paintings from all three periods are unique examples of their kind, not to be found anywhere else in the world, according to Sophie Berthier, head of the Archaeological mission for the citadel. By request of the restoration team, Syria Today is deliberately not publishing a photograph of the door with this article so that the surprise is not diminished for the visitor.   

Next, visitors  stand inside a tower, from which they will be able to see into the Triumphal Hall, a magnificent, vaulted room with pillars. A mihrab, the niche in the wall facing Mecca, in the adjacent chamber helped visitors to the king to pray before coming into his presence. A scale model of the citadel complex will also be on view.   

Collaboration between France and Syria on the restoration of the citadel began in earnest in 2000, following a request by Syria to France for technical support, and an invitation to work on the citadel.   

In addition to Syrian money, funding has come from the French Senate, the EU, the Assemblأƒآ©e Nationale and the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). Private sponsors include Ondأƒآ©o Services (formerly Lyonnaise des Eaux), Nestlأƒآ©, Schlumberger, and Total (whose support funded the making of a film on the citadel which will be shown on site, and the construction of the trebuchet.) As part of the agreement signed between France and Syria, about fifty students from the Faculty of Archaeology at Damascus University, were able to train on the site alongside experts.    

The original aim of the mission had been to excavate and restore the four gates of the citadel, and the French team was specifically requested to excavate certain areas and buildings. The restoration team has had many happy surprises and various experts in ceramics, fauna and textiles had to be brought on board unexpectedly with each new discovery.   

 A precious cache of textiles and leather objects such as belts, fragments of a silk velvet waistcoat (one of two known surviving examples in the world) with sultans' coats of arms, helmets and powder horns, were found beautifully preserved in vertical light wells which had filled up with soil and building debris over the years.   
Shards of ceramics and glass as well as animal bones and thousands of Mongol arrow heads embedded in walls have revealed details about the day-to-day life of the citadel, and provided valuable clues as to the functions of each room.   

In fact, the citadel at Damascus, which is unusual because it is not raised up on a mound as one might expect, was not constructed only for defensive purposes. It is now known to have been a royal palace, to have contained several mosques, a hammam, belvederes, arsenals, and even a souk. It had its own imam and governor (appointed by Cairo) who were separate from that of the city of Damascus. From the end of the Mameluk period, the citadel gained importance as a military centre for the Middle East, until the Ottoman period, when it waned again and it was populated by middle to working class people for approximately a hundred years.      
A major earthquake in 1759 destroyed a great deal of the building including two towers, and a civil war of 1813 between the citadel and the city caused further damage.   

Although there is evidence of a Roman camp on the site, and an earlier citadel dating from the 8th century, the citadel as it exists today was built in two main phases:  the first was during the Seljuk period at the beginning of the tenth century, and the second was around the beginning of the thirteenth century. Stone for the construction of the citadel originally came mainly from Mount Qassaouin, but for restoration purposes it was sourced elsewhere, as quarrying on the mountain is no longer allowed.  
As the visitor emerges into the citadel's central courtyard, an excavation carried out in 1992 by the late Syrian archaeologist, Nassib Saliby, will be on display. This excavation revealed the existence of an Ayubbid Hall. The nearby remnants of the original Seljuk citadel will also be on view.  

Another main attraction of the citadel is  be the wooden trebuchet, built in Damascus with the support and expertise of a British Museum specialist, and which will fire water cannonballs at the inauguration, and, it is hoped, on a monthly basis thereafter.    The western gate of the citadel, next to the main entrance to the Souk Hamidiyeh and the monument to Saladin, is  open to visitors, but a small entrance fee is for this section of the visit.   

A  final masterplan for the citadel  as a cultural attraction will be developed with the support, and a Euro 2m grant, from the Italian government. By the time Damascus assumes the mantle of Capital of Islamic Culture in 2008, it will have a fine new attraction to boast of.