Aleppo, from cosmopolitan city to disaster

Through more than 100 mostly unpublished illustrations, dating from the 16th to the 20th century, Dr. Philip Mansel demonstrates how cosmopolitanism was the foundation of the prosperity of Aleppo, a crossroads of caravans and cultures.

Since 2012, the catastrophe of the civil war in Syria has marked a break with the past in a city in which Muslims, Christians and Jews had lived together peacefully for over a thousand years. After resisting four centuries of Ottoman rule and the French mandate, this multi-faith city proved unable to withstand the extremisms of the 21st century.

This lecture led by Anne-Sophie Bruyndonckx, journalist at RTBF, is programmed in the frame of the exhibition Aleppo, a 5,000 year journey which runs until 18 April, at the Boghossian Foundation.