The Syrian Parliament Building

A stone building of two adjoining blocks on the Salihiyah road: the parliament of Syria. It was put up between 1928 and 1929, during the elections for the Constituent Assembly, on the site of the Ottoman-era Chanakkale cinema and theatre. Outside it is the clearest public face of French Mandate architecture in Damascus; inside it is covered in Arab ornament. Because the chamber works, the building is not open to visitors.

Getting there

The road climbing from Marjeh Square towards Salihiyah takes you past its gate; about fifteen minutes on foot from the souq district. The two blocks stand side by side with a passage between them called Bab al-Salihiyah. The Al-Qabbani Theatre and the Sarouja quarter are a street away, on the same walk.

Can you go inside

No. This is where the legislature sits; there is security at the entrance and no tourist programme. The procedure for watching a session changes, so ask at the door. Looking at the front from the pavement and seeing the passage between the two blocks is free.

Outside and inside

The building was raised under the French Mandate and its order is European: a symmetrical front, a flat cornice, measured stonework. The decoration pulls the other way. The interior ornament was made by the artist Muhammad Ali al-Hayyat, and the intention was plain — to tell on the walls of the Arab civilisations that passed through Syria. The second block was the gendarmerie and internal security building in Mandate times; today the assembly’s own offices are under the same roof.

The chamber was built twice

The old chamber, in use between 1932 and 1954, was wrecked by the French Senegalese garrison during the protests of 1945. Repair began on the order Saadallah al-Jabiri gave in 1947 and finished in 1954 with the new hall known as the Dome. The first session in it was held on 14 October 1954. So the chamber you see on television is not the building’s first.

Do not miss

The Bab al-Salihiyah passage between the two blocks. Everyone photographing the front does it from the opposite pavement, but only from that passage do you grasp that the building is made of two pieces.