MONASTERY
Balamand Patriarchal Monastery
Balamand · Greek Orthodox
A brief history
Founded in 1157 as Belmont, in the Crusader County of Tripoli, Balamand was begun by Cistercian monks and kept as such until the Mamluk conquest of 1289. After a poorly documented gap of three centuries it was re-established by Greek Orthodox monks in 1610, and it belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch.
An interesting detail
The University of Balamand was later founded on the monastery grounds, so a twelfth-century foundation now shares its site with a modern campus.