Welcome to Martyrs’ Square

Martyrs’ Square is the civic heart of downtown Beirut, the open space long known as Sahat al Shuhada and, under the French Mandate, Place des Canons. It has been a market, a tram hub, a wartime front line and, after reconstruction, the capital’s main place of protest and public gathering. The Martyrs’ statue commemorates Lebanese executed under Ottoman rule in 1916. Around it stand the Mohammad al Amin Mosque, St George’s cathedral, the Roman baths and the streets leading to Place de l’Étoile. Anyone researching historic Beirut, the downtown reconstruction or political life in Lebanon starts here. It is walkable from the corniche, the National Museum axis and the Berytus cardo ruins.