Country Lebanon Highest elevation 1,150 m (3,770 ft) Time zone EET (UTC+2) | District Matn District Lowest elevation 900 m (3,000 ft) Area code +961 | |
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Governorate Mount Lebanon Governorate Weather 8°C, Wind S at 10 km/h, 91% Humidity | ||
MarMoussa (Arabic: مار موسى, also spelled Mar-Moussa) is a town in Lebanon located in the Matn District of Mount Lebanon Governorate. It is 25 km from Beirut at an altitude ranging between 900 to 1150 meters above sea level.
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History
in 1048, the SAKR family orignally from Byblos or JBEIL, moved to the area called AL DAERA, known today as the MATN Area. The SAKR family donated to the church and the monastery over 36,000,000SQM of land over the years . In 1753, with the help and aids of the SAKR family,CHAYBAN, KARAKI and others, all related families, a group of Lebanese monks built the monastery of Mar Moussa Al-Habshi over the remains of an old sanctuary. In later years, migrant families from Jbail, Chbaniyé, and Bikfaya settled in the area., whom were forced to cultivate the monastery’s lands. Gradually, the community grew into the village called Mar Moussa Ed-Douar. In the 1950s, after the monastery forced few families out of their homes (a land that was once given to the monastery initially for free) during the icy cold winter season the resident sought the help of the government who succeeded in forcing the monastery to give back a very small portion of the land to the people and began expanding the village. Since then, many villas and houses have been built in the surrounding area, which is full of pine trees. The village’s most prominent landmarks are the monastery and the windmill which is falling apart as the monastery refuses to refurbish it. Few large parcels of land were lost to foreign investment companies due to the lack careful conduct of the monastery.
Demography
The inhabitants of MarMoussa are followers of the Maronite Catholic Church.
Like most mountain villages in Lebanon, MarMoussa is home to a historic Maronite monastery: Deir Mar Moussa (Saint Moussa Monastery). Built in 1753, Deir Mar Moussa Al-Habshi is constructed of white stones and consists of several long buildings with bricks on top, surrounded by trees. It was built over the remains of an old sanctuary. In the monastery there is a small church dedicated to St. Charbel and shrines for St. Rafqa (a Maronite Lebanese nun beatified in 1985 and canonized in 2001) and Na’amatallah Al-Hardini (a Lebanese monk who was declared venerable in 1989 and beatified in 1998). The courtyard of Deir Mar Moussa overlooks terraces and the pine mountains of Bzebdine, as well as Mount Kneysseh.