Grand Serail
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The Grand Serail (Arabic: السراي الكبير) is the headquarters of the Prime Minister of Lebanon. It is situated at the heart of downtown Beirut a few meters away from the Lebanese Parliament.
It was first built in 1853 by the Ottomans to serve as a military base. After World War II, it became the headquarters of the French High Commissioner in Lebanon and Syria. It took up its present role as the headquarters of the Prime Minister after the Independence of Lebanon from France in 1943. It has an Ottoman style architecture with yellowish walls and a red roof. When the serail was rebuilt in the 1990s, the whole building was demolished except for the outer walls.
The Serail also has a residential suite which would ideally house the Prime Minister. All the Lebanese Prime Ministers who have served after it was renovated (1998) have chosen to live in their private residences.
It started hosting the weekly ministerial meetings every other week after the usual venue of the ministerial meetings was abandoned due to security reasons in mid-2005. Now, the ministerial meetings are held in alternating order at Baabda Palace and the Grand Serail.
The Grand Serail is frequently used as a backdrop when international news channels such as CNN, BBC, and Al-Arabiya report from Beirut.
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