Baadaran Castle is the historic fortified house or strongpoint of Baadaran, a high village in the Chouf with wide views, a pine forest and a twentieth-century airstrip nearby. Village castles in Mount Lebanon are often family strongholds rather than crusader forts: stone, a defensible position and a story tied to local notables. What survives is best walked with the old grape press and the Church of St Elijah. The mountain light and the drop toward the valleys are half the experience. Roads are winding; in winter check conditions. It is a small historic place that completes Baadaran beyond the curiosity of the old airport.
