Mosul’s historic al-Nuri mosque and al-Hadba minaret rise again

The historic buildings of Mosul, including churches and mosques, are reopened after years of devastation resulting from the takeover of the Iraqi city by the extremist group of the Islamic State (IS).

The project, organized and funded by UNESCO, began a year after being defeated and chased from the city, in northern Iraq, in 2017.

UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay attended a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the reopening.

The craftsmen, residents and local representatives of all the religious communities of Mosul were also there.

In 2014, Mosul was occupied, which for centuries was considered a symbol of tolerance and coexistence between different religious and ethnic communities in Iraq.

The group imposed its extreme ideology on the city, targeting minorities and killing adversaries.

Three years later, a coalition supported by the United States in alliance with the Iraqi army and the militias linked to the State set up intense land and an air offensive to divert the city from IS. The bloodiest battles focused on the old town, where the group’s fighters made a last stand.

Mosul’s photographer, Ali Al-Barodi, remembers the horror that greeted him when he entered the region shortly after the street battle by rue in the summer of 2017.

He saw the gloriously biased al-Hadba Minaret, known as “hunchback”, which had been emblematic of Mosul for hundreds of years, in ruins.

“It was like a ghost city,” he said. “Corns all around, a disgusting smell and horrible scenes from the city and the horizon line without the Hadba Minaret.

“It was not the city we knew – it was like a metamorphosis – that we never even imagined in our worst nightmares. I was silent after that for a few days. I lost my voice. I lost my head. “

Eighty percent of the old town of Mosul, on the tiger’s West Bank, were destroyed during the three-year occupation of the IS.

It was not only the churches, mosques and old houses that were to be repaired, but also the community spirit of those who had lived there for so long in relative harmony between religions and ethnic groups.

The huge reconstruction task began under the auspices of UNESCO with a budget of $ 115 million (93 million pounds sterling) that the agency had managed to stem, a large part of the United Arab Emirates and the European Union.

Father Olivier POQUILLON – A Dominican priest – returned to Mosul to help supervise the restoration of one of the key buildings, the convent of Notre -Dame de l’Heure, known locally under the name of Al -Saa’a , which was founded almost 200 years ago.

“We started by trying first to collect the team – a team made up of people from the old Mosul of different denominations – Christians, Muslims working together,” he said.

Father Poquillon says that gathering communities was the biggest challenge and the greatest success.

“If you want to rebuild the buildings you have first to reconstruct confidence – if you do not reconstruct confidence, it is useless to rebuild the walls of these buildings because they will become a target for other communities.”

In charge of the entire project – which included the restoration of 124 old houses and two particularly beautiful residences – was the chief architect Maria Rita Acetoso, who came to Mosul directly from the restoration of UNESCO in Afghanistan.

“This project shows that culture can also create jobs, can encourage skills development and can also ensure that people involved feel like something significant,” she said.

She hopes that reconstruction will be able to restore hope and allow the recovery of people’s identity and cultural memory.

“I think this is particularly important for the younger generations who grow up in a situation of conflict and political instability,” she adds.

UNESCO says that more than 1,300 young locals have been trained in traditional skills, while some 6,000 new jobs have been created.

Over 100 classrooms have been renovated in Mosul. Thousands of historical fragments have been recovered and cataloged from the rubble.

Among the crowd of engineers involved in reconstruction, 30% were women.

Eight years later, the bells resounded again through Mosul of the Al-Tahera church, whose roof collapsed after serious damage under the occupation in 2017.

Other major monuments of Mosul have also been restored-this minaret which was squirming from al-Hadba, the Dominican convent al-Saa’a and the complex of the Al-Nouri mosque.

And people have been able to return to houses that have been home to their families for centuries.

A resident, Mustafa, said: “My house was built in 1864 – unfortunately, it was partly destroyed during the release of Mosul and it was unsuitable to live there, especially with my children.

“So I decided to move to my parents. I was very happy and excited to see my house rebuild.”

Abdullah’s family has also lived in an old town house since the 19th century, when the region was a center for the wool trade – which is why they say that their house is so precious to them.

“After Unesco rebuilt my house, I came back,” he said. “I cannot describe the feeling that I had because after seeing all the destruction passed there, I thought I could never come back and revise there.”

The scars of what the inhabitants of Mosul have still endured have not yet cured – so many Iraq remains in a fragile state.

But the rebirth of the old town of the rubble represents hope for a better future-while Ali al-Baroodi continues to document the evolution of his beloved house day by day.

“It’s really like seeing a dead person come back to life in a very, very beautiful way – it is the true spirit of the city that returns to life,” he said.

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