Mosul’s Old City, once a battleground, is now home to a breathtaking work of art: two majestic alabaster gates adorned with intricate carvings and floral designs to celebrate the city’s centuries-old rich cultural diversity.
They are part of a conceptual art project led by French artist Louis-Cyprien Rials to produce three monumental doors by local designers and craftsmen, reflecting the coexistence of Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities that have defined the northern Iraqi city for thousands of years.
The Muslim and Christian doors have been built and are now on display in the heart of the Old City, just opposite the famous leaning minaret of the 12th century of Al Nuri Mosque, which was destroyed by ISIS in 2017 and rebuilt by a Unesco-led initiative partly funded by UAE. The Jewish door will follow.
The doors are made in parts of alabaster, which slot together so they can be moved around easily for display in different places. They will eventually be exhibited in the French city Le Havre for its summer art programme, Un ete au Havre. The two cities have more in common than one might imagine: both were destroyed by war, with the French city reduced to ash during the Second World War.
“I was always very obsessed by this city’s history and by what happened to the people there,” said Mr Rials, who has been visiting Iraq since 2011, leading and organising many art projects.
After visiting Mosul in 2021, “I discovered all the architecture. I felt it was necessary to build a monument to the different people who built it; Muslims, Christian and Jews,” he told The National.
The Doors of Mosul project is a “monument to Mosul’s different identities that can be shown in many different places. They will become the ambassador of the city”.
Over the past 2,500 years, Mosul has lived up to its Arabic name, which translates to "Linking Point", as a bridge between regions and cultures. The city became symbolic of Iraq’s pluralistic identity marked by the coexistence of its various ethnic, linguistic and religious groups.
In June 2014, ISIS militants seized control of the city, Iraq’s second-largest, in less than a week. They immediately launched a campaign to destroy and ransack the city's rich archaeological and heritage sites, churches and Islamic buildings, which the terrorist group considered to be pagan and idolatrous. Then came the US-backed military operation to claw it back, leaving much of the city in ruins.
Among the areas that were destroyed was the Old City, where the last urban battle took place. Its rich heritage had long remained well preserved, with its maze of alleyways, monuments and buildings combining elements of Islamic and Nestorian Christian architectural and decorative arts.
One of the main features of Mosul’s architecture was the richly decorated alabaster facades, marble interiors, honeycomb vaults, and masonry elements, often including carved decorative motifs and inscriptions that adorned doors, windows and arcades.
For centuries, Muslims, Christians and Jews used the local alabaster, locally known as faresh, for the doors of their homes as well as in mosques, churches and synagogues. These richly crafted doors contained either religious symbols or sophisticated engravings with a particular identity for each religion.
These elements endured until the destruction of Mosul’s Old City in 2017. Many of them were either removed by the owners when they rebuilt their houses or were stolen from the ruins, prompting Sahar Kharrufa, an architect and academic member of the University of Mosul, to document what is left.
“The area was like an outdoor museum, vulnerable for plundering and none could protect it," Ms Kharrufa told The National. "In addition, the residents’ priority after the liberation was to return and prepare a secure place for their families, therefore the issues of heritage, history and architecture elements had no value for them.
“What was important to me not to act as observer but I had to document them in order to make them available to artisans who want to reuse them."
She started by collecting photos of the doors in the Old City and creating schematic drawings that ended in a book published in 2019 titled Doors of the Old City of Mosul: Anatomical Study of the Characteristics of Forms of Old City. Another book, titled Mosul Old City: Architectural Heritage, Documentation, followed in 2022 to document in detail all the architectural elements in the buildings.
These books were the main source of inspiration for Mr Rials. He launched the The Doors of Mosul project in co-operation with Ms Kharrufa and other engineers and sculptors who had taken part in Unesco’s Revive the Spirit of Mosul initiative to restore the city's heritage, and other projects. He secured a €40,000 ($43,558) loan for the project from the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP).
The doors, each weighing eight tonnes, are not copies of existing ones, but a new creation featuring traditional designs used by each community and designed by Ms Kharrufa. The project reimagines the city’s lost heritage, transforming the functional architecture of doors into sculptural monuments engraved on both sides. Last summer, the Muslim Door welcomed guests at the French embassy in Baghdad during the celebration of the National Day of France. It was then returned to Mosul to be erected next to the Christian Door in the heart of the Old City.
The delicate stone carvings that dance across the doors are more than just a testament to the artisans’ skill. They are a reflection of the city’s own intricate and layered history and a reminder of the role of art in healing communities affected by conflict.
“I believe that art is a way to heal people and to express themselves, as people are still deeply traumatised here,” Mr Rials said. “The best way to rebuild the identity of a country, like Iraq, is in my opinion to think about the past and to create art.
"I believe that art is something that is healing and is something that promotes culture and identity, and I hope that a new generation of artists as talented as their fathers will emerge."
