Our Lady of Houbasa

Located on the southern side of the village, the site of Notre Dame of the Habs (Our Lady of Houbasa according to the Fahs journal of 1884) occupies a set of cavities and rocky folds at the sin of a cliff which has a total height of 250 m. The monastery in question, of which only a few cells currently remain, must have originally been much larger. This convent must have still had a lively monastic life as suggested by a manuscript copied by the priest Youssef Dahdah on the monastery’s name. This manuscript is still conserved at the Saint George church. Currently, the monastery is made up of a few cells as well as a processional path which leads to it and which crosses one of the folds of the cliff. Several saints statues have been erected along that path. From the monastery’s remaining rooms, a staircase of more than 600 steps leads to a platform halfway up the cliff, where a statue of the virgin was erected in 1989 by Boulos Gerges and transported to its location by an army helicopter.

• Route : Maronite major spiritual
• Village : Aqoura