Al-Qassaa, Damascus

Al-Qassaa is the quarter Damascene Christians built when they moved outside the walls. It sits northeast of the old city, under the Sarouja municipality, and its southern edge runs against the Bab Touma quarter. The name comes from the ground rather than a family or a building: the clay pots made here were called qassa.

Getting there

You walk. Head north out of Bab Touma, cross the line of the wall and you are on Qassaa Street, which runs the length of the quarter and ends at Bilal Square. There is no taxi ride between the two; the old fabric and the new one touch.

Why people moved outside the walls

The quarter was laid out in the early 20th century, in the last years of Ottoman rule. Those who founded it were Christians leaving Bab Touma, where the old houses and narrow lanes had become harder and harder to live in. What made the move possible was security: after the massacre of 1860, the order the Ottomans imposed turned living outside the wall into a real option. Under the French Mandate the quarter expanded along the plans of the architect Michel Ecochard, and its grid of streets dates from then.

What to see

This is not a quarter of monuments; what you walk through is the fabric itself. Two churches mark it: the Church of the Holy Cross and the Church of Saint Cyril. The streets between them are apartment blocks with shops on the ground floor. The census figures show how fast it filled: in the French Mandate count of 1936 the quarter held 1872 people, all of them Christian; by 2004 it held 11467. Today most residents are Christians of the city’s upper income bracket.

What most people miss

Come to the Church of the Holy Cross in the evening. The cross on the dome and the bell tower beside it are lit after dark, and that is what makes the building visible from streets several blocks away. By day the same facade is unremarkable.