The Trust’s Historic Cities Programme (AKHCP) has been active in Syria since 1999, when the Government requested it to restore three historically important citadels: Aleppo, Masyaf, and Salah al-Din. In 2008, with a view to managing these projects, AKTC established a local subsidiary, Aga Khan Cultural Services-Syria (AKCS-S). Right from the beginnings of the Citadel restoration projects, AKCS-S gradually expanded the scope of its conservation work to include several contextual dimensions of the three sites. In 2016 the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums and the Syria Trust for Development, reached out to AKCS-S to assist in the rehabilitation of other cultural sites in the country, notably some of those that had been most severely damaged during the thirteen years of conflict.
In 2017, AKTC initiated a comprehensive rehabilitation programme for the Central Souk of Aleppo, the largest medieval souk in the Middle East, which was extensively damaged during the Syrian conflict. The programme was the first major conservation and reuse project of its scale in post-conflict Aleppo; it was not only about physical restoration but also about reviving the city’s economic and social life, designed to serve as a catalyst for capacity-building and ongoing urban regeneration, supporting livelihoods, and community cohesion.
Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture