Pine Residence

Pine Residence
Native name قصر الصنوبر
The Pine Residence in 1918
Location	Beirut, Lebanon
Coordinates	33°52′38″N 35°30′30″E / 33.877201°N 35.508428°E / 33.877201; 35.508428Coordinates: 33°52′38″N 35°30′30″E / 33.877201°N 35.508428°E / 33.877201; 35.508428
Built	1916
Built for	Azmi Bey, Wali of Beirut, Alfred Moussa Sursock
Architect	Bahjat Abdel Nour
Architectural style(s)	Neo-Mauresque
Governing body	French Embassy in Beirut
Location of Pine Residence in Beirut

The Pine Residence (Arabic: قصر الصنوبر ‎‎, Qasr al-snawbar, literally "the palace of the Pines"), located in the Horsh district of Beirut, is the official residence of the French ambassador to Lebanon. The palace holds particular historical importance since General Henri Gouraud declared the creation of the state of Greater Lebanon on September 1, 1920 from its porch.

The 19th century witnessed a considerable rise in seafaring traffic with the introduction of steamships and completion of the Suez Canal in 1869. Annual goods shipping weights rose from 40,000 tons to 1,700,000 tons between 1830 and 1914, and the first steamship arrived in Beirut in 1836. The Port of Beirut was developed by a French company to better handle the increasing amount of transported goods, and Beirut became a highly prominent port city in the Ottoman Empire after centuries of being reduced to a trifling walled town. The brief Egyptian rule from 1832 to 1840 was responsible for important urban planning and sanitation developments; it also opened up the city to foreign trade and influence. In 1888 Beirut was once again under Ottoman rule, it was elevated to a new status and became the capital of the Vilayet of Beirut.

The urban and architectural fabric of the until-then typical medieval Islamic walled city was changed by the Ottoman Ebniye and Turuk Regulations that were enacted in 1848 and 1864 as a part of the Tanzimat reforms and that would serve as a scheme for the development of Beirut until after the French mandate over Lebanon. The reforms resulted in greater city autonomy through the creation of municipalities and the development of the urban space. The municipality of Beirut was created in 1863. Starting from 1860 and for twenty years, the Tanzimat impacted the transformation of the Beirut space heavily. The period was marked by the restoration of the ancient souks, the creation of new commercial spaces and the establishment of infrastructures on a big scale and the building of large public and private building such as the Grand Serail and its annexes and the Pine residence. The movement catalyzed by the Tanzimat reforms set the foundation of a new framework for buildings characterized by works inspired from several European styles such as neo-baroque and neo-gothic. The former architectural tradition declined progressively.