Greater Damascus: Seidnaya

Seidnaya is a small town in Greater Damascus (officially the Governorate of the Countryside of Damascus).  It is located in the Qalamoon Region on the edge of the Anti-Lebanon Mountain Range, 27 kilometers north of Damascus. The trip is well worth the trouble.

Situated at an altitude of 1415 meters above the sea level with its monastery towering above the town from a height of 60 meters, Seidnaya deservedly earns the appellation of citadel-village, coined in the 1930's by the French geographer Richard Thoumin.

The site, according to René Dussaud -another illustrious French orientalist and archaeologist- is an ancient one. Its fame however, dates from medieval times, when it emerged as an important center of Christianity well before this became the official religion of the Roman Empire. 

The main attraction is the Greek Orthodox Convent of Our Lady of Seidnaya, purportedly founded by the Byzantine Basileus Justinian (527-565 CE). Pilgrims flocked to the convent, attracted by the miracles associated with the image of the Virgin believed by the faithful to be painted by Saint Luke. The shrine boasts other relics said to date from the 5th to the 7th centuries. 

Virtually all Christians and quite few Muslims revere the venerable monastery that has attracted the pious as well as the profane from time immemorial. Even at the height of the Crusades, and despite warfare opposing Frank and Muslim, pilgrims were able to reach Seidnaya and pay their respect. 

References:

Richard Thoumin

Géographie humaine de la Syrie Centrale

Tours, Arnault et Cie Maîtres Imprimeurs 1936

René Dussaud

TOPOGRAPHIE HISTORIQUE DE LA SYRIE ANTIQUE ET MÉDIÉVALE

Paris, Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1927 

Ross Burns

Monuments of Syria, an Historical Guide

New York University Press 1992

Ivan Mannheim & Dave Winter

Jordan, Syria, & Lebanon Handbook

Footprint Handbooks 1998

Photo credit: P Chahinian

A Tourist Guide for Damascus (circa 1975)