Introduction
Although 13th century Lebanese church murals represent a fairly limited set of fragmentary decors, they bare concrete witness to an activity that thrived in the Crusader States, from the foundation of the County of Tripoli in 1104 until 1289 when it fell. These paintings were equally implicated in the art of the crusaders and of the local peoples. The presence of the former suggests that the walls of these religious buildings were embellished with the support of Latin patrons. Such projects could only take shape in the context of good relations between the civil and religious Latin authorities and the native Christians. These murals echo those of 12th and 13th century Syria albeit in a Latin political and cultural context as confirmed by inscriptions in Latin on the chapel walls. Some tens of ancient chapels huddled in Lebanon's northernmost region have retained infinitesimal traces of colours, pointing to the long gone existence of a painted décor. In the regions of Jbeil, Batroun, Koura and the Kadisha Valley, over thirty churches boast a pictorial programme of murals. A large part of this heritage is today in an advanced state of dilapidation in spite of restoration campaigns lead by NGOs and the Directorate General of Antiquities
Around the city of Jbeil (ancient Byblos and Gibelet to the crusaders) four mountain localities have kept 13th century painted decors within their churches: Saint Theodore[1] in Behdidat, Saint-Charbel in M'ad, Saint Elias in Blat and al-Saydet in Qassouba. In this study, we shall focus on the pictorial programme of the church of Mar Tadros (Saint Theodore) in the village of Behdidat. According to orientalist Ernest Renan[2], the building and its paintings were worthy of note: “The church is ancient and the paintings that adorns its interior may rate among the finest specimen of Syrian art.”
