Did you know that Beirut’s iconic Martyrs’ Square (ساحة الشهداء  / Sahat al -Shuhadah, Place des Martyrs) has not always been known by that name? 

Its most popular local name is Al-Burj (“the tower”), originally coined in reference to the Burj Al-Kashef watchtower. In the nineteenth century it was known as Place des Canons until the ascension of Sultan Abed Al-Hamid, when it was renamed Hamidiyyah Square (Sahat al-Hamidiyyah). Following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908 its name was changed to Freedom Square (Sahat al-Huriyyah), and again to Union Square (Sahat al-Itihad) in 1909.

Its enduring association with martyrdom came after the executions of numerous journalists and notables opposed to Ottoman rule under the Beirut governor Jamal Pasha in 1915 and 1916. Intolerance of dissent escalated at the outbreak of the First World War, and any criticism of authorities was dealt with harshly. The largest group of men, executed at the Square on 6 May 1916, are still remembered as “the caravan of national martyrs”.

The Square was renamed in honour of the martyrs in the 1930s. The current statue depicting the struggle for freedom was designed by Italian sculptor Marino Mazzacurati and inaugurated in May 1960. The statue sits at the centre of Square today, but is now riddled with bullets after having survived years as a silent eyewitness at the centre of the city’s infamous “green line” during the Civil War.