”We have just discovered more than 100 square metres. The large slabs of lime were easy to prise off the walls and shattered in clouds of white dust on the ground, revealing the most enchanting scenery" - Victor Eustache de Lorey, 1928.
The mosaics were discovered in the western portico, which had survived the fire of 1893 largely unscathed.
Rediscovery by Victor Eustache de Lorey
Eustache de Lorey began sounding the walls in 1927. He repeatedly warned the authorities that the mosaics were in a perilous state and worked to raise funds for their restoration to the point of spending his own money on the project. The waqf responsible for the building provided emergency funds to save the mosaics, and in the summer of 1928 they began the work of clearing and restoring them. An outstanding mosaic decoration came to light between 1928 and 1929.
The restoration under Marguerite Van Berchem
In 1937, Marguerite Van Berchem planned to take up where Victor Eustache de Lorey had left off. She hoped to train local workers and provide the city of Damascus with the means to “ensure […] the conservation of its mosaics” without the help of outside specialists. However, France lost its mandate over Syria at the end of the Second World War and her plans were never put into practice.
Reconstructions in the 1960s
When the mosque was restored again in the 1960s, the decorations - including two of the most celebrated parts of the mosque, the Bayt al-Mal and the facade of the prayer hall - were reconstructed. Marguerite Van Berchem described these restorations as a “massacre”, and felt the reconstruction had been taken too far.
