Villa Rose
A pink stone mansion of 1928 in the Aziziyah quarter, the first building in Aleppo to use European architecture undiluted. Private, seen from the street.
- Opening hours
- Visible from outside at any hour; no entry
- Entry
- Not open to visitors — private property
- Duration
- 20 minutes
- Best time
- Late afternoon; the pink stone deepens in low light
- Period
- French mandate
- Address
- Saadallah al-Jabiri Street, Aziziyah, Aleppo
Villa Rose is a mansion of 1928 on Saadallah al-Jabiri Street in the Aziziyah quarter. The name comes from the colour of the stone: the facade is pink. This was the first building in Aleppo to use European architectural elements without mixing them, working mainly from Baroque principles, and probably the first in Syria. It was built by the wealthy Aleppine businessman Subhi Kabbabé during the days of the French mandate.
Why it matters
Aziziyah is already the quarter where Aleppo stepped outside its walls, but the rest of it blends local stone tradition with European order. Villa Rose does not blend. The round corner tower, the dome above it, the balustraded garden wall and the window surrounds come straight out of the Baroque repertoire. If you want to see the moment Aleppo changed architectural direction in a single building, this is it.
Getting there
It stands in the middle of Aziziyah, north-east of Aleppo Public Park. Five minutes on foot from the northern exit of the park. The street is wide and busy, and you need the far pavement to fit the building into one frame.
How often it changed hands
In 1948 Dr Gregory Kassis bought the building and turned it into a maternity hospital. During the 1960s the new owner Jean-Frédéric Rabbat prepared to pull it down; residents objected, the governor of Aleppo at the time, Abdulghani al-Saadawi, stepped in and talked him out of it. In 1983 the mansion was sold to a group of new owners and listed the same year among the architectural heritage monuments of Aleppo, for a plain reason: so that no future owner could demolish it. It now belongs to Abdul Aziz al-Sukhni, one of the leading figures of the Syrian pharmaceutical industry.
Can you go in
No. Villa Rose is private property and not open to visitors. You look at it from outside the garden wall, and reading the facade from the pavement takes about twenty minutes.
What most people miss
The dome on top of the corner tower. Walking along the street the angle hides it; from the far pavement the whole logic of the building gathers in that tower.
Tips
- Cross to the far pavement; only from there does the building fit one frame
- Look at the corner tower and its dome, that is where the idea of the house sits
- Do not push at the garden gate; the mansion is private and lived in
- Five minutes from the northern exit of the public park; put the two in one walk
Transparency
- How this was chosen
- Written by hand; opening hours, entry fee and coordinates are kept as data. A field that is not known for certain is marked as variable rather than guessed.
- Facts checked
- September 2026
- Last updated
- September 15, 2026