Every room in the Musee Henry has a story. But often, fiction blurs with reality.
“This is the story of Malek, Fatou and Delware, the three servants that keep and protect this house,” says Henry Loussian, a collector, self-taught painter and designer in Beirut who built and founded the house-museum. He is lying flat on an antique bed in the museum’s guest bedroom, gazing up at the ceiling, as we, the visitors, sit around him and listen.
Above him is a hand-painted ceiling panel, with three portraits in each corner. The style of painting, decorative and naive, is typical of those found in 19th-century heritage homes across Lebanon.
At the outset, Loussian’s museum appears like a typical heritage home of its time. But just like the three servants painted on the ceiling, the entire building is a fiction. “When I was growing up in Beirut, I didn’t care for the old townhouses. Then one day I saw one from the inside,” he recalls. “I thought to myself: I want a house like this.”
The story of Musee Henry
For about 14 years, Loussian salvaged antique objects and architectural pieces from more than 100 heritage homes in Beirut that were facing demolition. Then, in a plot of land outside the seaside town of Batroun, he built a house in the same style.
The museum is decorated with the original tiles, arches, stone door frames and ceilings from five historic homes in Lebanon's capital. Among the objects he reclaimed is the bathtub of former prime minister Takieddin el-Solh, and a tainted glass arched window with the Star of David from the former Jewish quarter of Wadi Abou Jamil.
I fell in love with Beirut, and Beirut fell in love with me
Henry Loussian,
founder of Musee Henry
“Nothing you see in the house is new. The objects are all original." The architectural layout of a traditional townhouse has also been respected, with a large central living room, arched window dividers leading on to the terrace, high ceilings with painted panels and tiled floors.
As we enter the house into the brightly lit living area, three panels of lattice-work window arches, made of cedar wood, divide the room on either side. “These arches are an important feature of the Beirut house. It creates this light, airy feel to the room, and later it was adopted across cities like Alexandria, Smyrna and Damascus,” he explains.
A blurring of reality and fiction
Loussian, who emphasises his faith, views his work as a mission. “When I first completed my home in 2013, very few people came to visit me. They weren't interested in the work I had been doing.” That’s when he identified a missing touch to the house: the painting ceilings. In the ensuing years, he painted these himself using patterns from Lebanese homes that he found in books.
Loussian is a stickler for historical accuracy. He explains every detail of the home with reference books and his own archival material. “The house has 77 pointed arched windows in total.” A typical home would have had less than 20, he says. “I just love them so much.”
Reality and fiction continue to blur when he shows us an installation of vintage Louis Vuitton travel trunks. “These were the trunks my grandmother Helene Merhej used to travel with to America.” Next to these sits a printed photograph of a travelling woman derived from a vintage commercial.
This is a museum about his home, explains Loussian, as he walks us through the house. “I fell in love with Beirut, and Beirut fell in love with me.” The city’s transience and constant evolution contribute to its magic, he says. "Paris is recognisably Paris, and Venice will always be the same Venice. But in Beirut, you find hidden gems while walking amid high-rise buildings."
From Beirut to Batroun
It's interesting then that the museum is located in north Lebanon. “Let me answer a question that I know you’re all going to ask – why build a museum dedicated to Beirut away from the city, here in Batroun?” From the balcony, he points to an expanse of orchards beneath the house, the mountains of northern Lebanon on the right, and the sea to the left. “My answer is here,” he says.
“Beirut was once surrounded by orchards. When you came out on to your balcony, you saw the fruit trees, you saw the top of Sannine mountain. And wherever you were in the city, you were never too far from the sea.”
In the post-war years, Beirut’s heritage buildings have regularly been demolished to make way for new property projects. As such, Loussian’s collection was an urgent response to a city that has rapidly lost its historical identity. “There were three men in charge of preparing the homes for demolition. Their names were Abu Ali, Abu Tarek and Abu Samir,” he recalls. “I would agree to buy objects from them, as long as they allowed me to enter the house before and document it.”
Not everything could be saved, however. He shows photographs of arched panels from the former Al-Makassed Girl’s School in Beirut. “I told Abu Ali, hold on to these for me, I’ll be back for them. But that week, some children broke into the house to play football, and smashed all the windows.”
Today, the existing damage has been compounded by the August 4, 2020 port explosion, in which the city’s last remaining heritage homes were severely affected. Loussian hopes the museum can keep their memory alive among Lebanon’s youth. “We have so many beautiful homes in Beirut, but we never experience them,” he says.
He's now amassed enough objects and photographs to build at least two more homes like this. His dream, he says, would be to reconstruct a heritage-style home in Horsh Beirut, one of the city’s rare parks at the heart of the capital. “It would be a collaborative project for all Beirutis and Lebanese."
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Liverpool's all-time goalscorers
Ian Rush 346
Roger Hunt 285
Mohamed Salah 250
Gordon Hodgson 241
Billy Liddell 228
Hidden killer
Sepsis arises when the body tries to fight an infection but damages its own tissue and organs in the process.
The World Health Organisation estimates it affects about 30 million people each year and that about six million die.
Of those about three million are newborns and 1.2 are young children.
Patients with septic shock must often have limbs amputated if clots in their limbs prevent blood flow, causing the limbs to die.
Campaigners say the condition is often diagnosed far too late by medical professionals and that many patients wait too long to seek treatment, confusing the symptoms with flu.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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The bio
His favourite book - 1984 by George Orwell
His favourite quote - 'If you think education is expensive, try ignorance' by Derek Bok, Former President of Harvard
Favourite place to travel to - Peloponnese, Southern Greece
Favourite movie - The Last Emperor
Favourite personality from history - Alexander the Great
Role Model - My father, Yiannis Davos
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Engine: 2.4-litre four-cylinder
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strategies
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Rating: 4 stars
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Transmission: 10-speed auto
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
How to turn your property into a holiday home
- Ensure decoration and styling – and portal photography – quality is high to achieve maximum rates.
- Research equivalent Airbnb homes in your location to ensure competitiveness.
- Post on all relevant platforms to reach the widest audience; whether you let personally or via an agency know your potential guest profile – aiming for the wrong demographic may leave your property empty.
- Factor in costs when working out if holiday letting is beneficial. The annual DCTM fee runs from Dh370 for a one-bedroom flat to Dh1,200. Tourism tax is Dh10-15 per bedroom, per night.
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Fund-raising tips for start-ups
Develop an innovative business concept
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Put in place a business continuity plan after Covid-19
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Be creative and innovative to reduce expenses
Be prepared to use Covid-19 as an opportunity for your business
* Tips from Jassim Al Marzooqi and Walid Hanna
