Ghazala House ( بيت غزالة / Beit Ghazaleh), built in the seventeenth century, is located in the extramural Judayda Quarter of old Aleppo. It was named after the Ghazaleh family who owned it for about two hundred years.
The Ottoman-era courtyard house is unique in its size and rich ornamentation. Each window in the courtyard has a stone lintel with carved floral designs. The walls are covered with alternating black and white stone panels up to the second story. The rooms have wooden ceilings painted with floral motifs. Made by local craftsmen, the panels display many painted inscriptions presenting a mix of popular sayings, mystic poetry, and biblical psalms. Ghazala House is the only house in Aleppo that has its own baths (hammam). These are located in the west wing. The tepidarium section of the baths has a set of columns with muqarnas capitals.
From 2007 to 2011, the Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums conducted a major campaign of restoration to transform Ghazala House into a museum dedicated to the memory of the city of Aleppo. In parallel, descendants of the Ghazaleh family launched a scientific study of the House in 2010. The house, which had been on the front line between 2012 to 2016, was looted and damaged during the Syrian Civil War.
-Mark Gazaleh, 2020
Sources:
Alafandi, Rami. "Report on the Missing Wooden Interiors ('ajami rooms) of the historic house Bayt Ghazala in Aleppo/Syria." September, 2018.
https://lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/binaries/content/10117/report_on_the_missing_wooden_interiors___ajami_rooms_of_the_.pdf?t=1545214051, accessed on 5 August, 2020. Archived at https://perma.cc/A4VK-ZEAL
David, Jean-Claude et François Cristofoli. Alep, la maison Ghazalé. Histoire et devenirs. Paris: Editions Parentheses, 2019.
David, Jean-Claude. "La guerre d’Alep 2012-2016. Destruction de la maison Ghazalé." ArchéOrient. March 9, 2018. https://archeorient.hypotheses.org/8296. Archived at https://perma.cc/ZN8H-UXW3.
Gonnella, Julia. Ein christlich-orientalisches Wohnhaus des 17. Jahrhunderts aus Aleppo (Syrien). Das 'Aleppo-Zimmer' im Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Mainz: P. von Zabern, 1996.
Al-Homsi, Fayez. Old Aleppo, 127-128. Damascus: Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Publishing, 1983.
RC Heritage. Beit Ghazaleh (maison du XVIIè s.) à Alep [ Syrie ] étude historique et architecturale / historical and architectural analysis [working document]. 2010-2019.
Syrian Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums. Interactive Map of Conflicted Archaeological Sites. www.dgam.gov.sy [Accessed 5 February 2018].
