HELIOPOLIS

Texte par: Robert Solé 

Quelle autre ville au monde pourrait m’émouvoir autant que celle-ci ? 

J’y ai vécu jusqu’à l’âge de 17 ans. Je l’ai parcourue dans tous les sens, à pied ou en vélo, des milliers de fois. Chacune de ses rues est associée pour moi à des souvenirs plus ou moins évanouis… Elle a pris maintenant une telle extension, subi tant d’outrages, perdu tant d’amis, qu’elle en devient parfois méconnaissable.

Les visiteurs étrangers la frôlent, sans la voir. A la sortie de l’aéroport, ils sont dirigés sur une autostrade qui file tout droit vers Le Caire. A peine aperçoivent-ils quelques villas d’un côté et, de l’autre, une sorte de temple hindou à l’abandon, planté au milieu d’un terrain vague…

Oui, Héliopolis mérite le détour. A vrai dire, elle le méritait dix fois plus il y a un demi-siècle quand elle était encore entourée de désert, vraiment verte, paisible et délicieusement cosmopolite.

Korba

L’idée en revient à un Belge, le baron Édouard Empain. Ce petit homme à la voix autoritaire, inventif et boulimique, était parti de rien. Fils d’un modeste instituteur du Hainaut, il avait construit peu à peu un empire, au moyen d’une incroyable collection de sociétés industrielles et financières, imbriquées les unes dans les autres.

La concession des tramways du Caire, obtenue en 1894, l’incite, dix ans plus tard, à étendre son réseau vers le sud de la capitale. Cette fois, Empain se heurte au refus de l’administration anglaise. Renoncer n’est pas dans ses habitudes : à défaut de sud, il se tournera vers le nord-est. C’est dans ce désert qu’il construira une sorte d’oasis, reliée au Caire par un train électrique. Le jeune architecte Ernest Jaspar, qui l’accompagne dans une promenade à cheval, l’entend dire : « Je veux bâtir ici une ville. Elle s’appellera Héliopolis, la ville du soleil, et tout d’abord j’y construirai un palace. Un énorme palace… »

L’Héliopolis antique (dont les monuments avaient été transportés à Alexandrie par les Ptolémée) était un centre religieux de premier plan, où s’élaboraient les cultes solaires. Se trouvait-elle vraiment sur ce plateau désertique ? Seul un obélisque peut le laisser croire. Des fouilles, confiées à l’égyptologue belge Jean Capart, ne donneront rien de plus. Mais le nom fait suffisamment rêver pour être adopté.

Empain s’associe à un homme d’affaires local, puissant et plein d’entregent, l’Arménien Boghos Nubar pacha. Ils achètent, pour une bouchée de pain, 2 500 hectares de désert et obtiennent la concession d’une ligne de chemin de fer électrique. La Compagnie d’Héliopolis est autorisée à créer une ville-jardin, qu’elle gèrera à la manière d’une municipalité et qui s’appellera en arabe Masr El Guédida (le nouveau Caire).

Baron Empain

Le plan d’urbanisme prévoit de larges avenues, traversées de jardins. Certaines feront jusqu’à 40 mètres de largeur. L’architecture est en proportion, avec des constructions monumentales, comme le siège de la Compagnie, boulevard Abbas. On invente pour Héliopolis un style indéfinissable, à la fois européen et néo-arabe, qui fera cohabiter des arcades, des balcons, des coupoles, des minarets… Les habitations aussi, relevant de plusieurs catégories, répondront à des normes très précises. Même la couleur (jaune clair) sera inscrite dans le règlement. Et, finalement, une grande unité se dégagera de cet éclectisme.

Il faut toujours une exception pour confirmer la règle : c’est l’extravagant palais hindou que se fait construire – un peu à l’écart, heureusement – le baron Empain pour son usage personnel. En revanche, la basilique catholique qu’il a commandé à ses architectes (Alexandre Marcel et Ernest Jaspar) s’inscrit parfaitement dans le paysage : plantée au cœur de la nouvelle ville, cette copie réduite de Sainte-Sophie de Constantinople devient vite l’un des traits distinctifs d’Héliopolis. A sa mort, en 1931, le baron sera enterré dans la crypte.

Il voulait un palace. Ce sera le plus grand hôtel du Proche-Orient. Une façade de 150 mètres de longueur, des centaines de chambres, des ascenseurs géants, des hammams, des salles de billard… Le décorateur Georges-Louis Claude, qui a exercé son talent au palais hindou, y fait des merveilles en mêlant plusieurs styles. De fastueuses réceptions seront données dans ce palace de rêve.

Traité de fou au début du siècle, Empain fait front à la crise financière de 1907 et multiplie les attractions (hippodrome, luna-park, concours aériens…). Ce qui devait être une ville de luxe attire, de manière inattendue, des familles de la petite bourgeoisie, dont beaucoup de Levantins francophones. Il faudra s’y adapter, mais le pari est gagné. Héliopolis compte 28 500 habitants en 1930 ; ils seront plus de 50 000 au lendemain de la seconde guerre mondiale. Églises et minarets font bon ménage dans cette cité paisible, noyée de bougainvilliers et d’arbres en tous genres. 

Un élégant Sporting Club aux pelouses impeccables apporte une tache supplémentaire de verdure dans ce plateau désertique au climat très sain, loin des fumées du Caire. Les meilleures écoles catholiques françaises (jésuites, frères, Sacré-Coeur…) y sont présentes, à côté du Lycée franco-égyptien et de l’English School.

Les debuts d'Heliopolis

Dans les années 50 et 60, Héliopolis a été privée d’une partie de son public, qui a quitté l’Égypte. De nouveaux habitants, de plus en plus nombreux, sont venus s’y installer. La ville n’a cessé de croître, dans tous les sens. Quelques magnifiques immeubles du centre ont été dénaturés par l’adjonction d’étages de béton. Des rues, jadis calmes, sont encombrées de voitures, qui se garent où elles peuvent. Des magasins regorgeant de marchandises n’ont plus rien à envier à ceux du Caire…. Mais la cité-jardin a tout de même de beaux restes. L’Héliopolis palace, devenu le siège de la présidence de la République, est toujours aussi majestueux. En face, l’ancien siège de la Compagnie dresse fièrement sa façade en mosquée au-dessus des bawakis (trottoirs sous arcades). Le Sporting, très bien tenu, conserve ses traditions. Les terrasses d’anciens cafés-restaurants, comme Amphitryon, n’ont rien perdu de leur charme. La vie à Héliopolis se distingue toujours par quelque chose d’indéfinissable, tandis que le  » métro  » blanc et bleu continue inlassablement à faire la navette entre Le Caire et l’oasis rêvée par le baron Empain.

Texte: Robert Solé 

Hanging Church (El Muallaqa)

Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church also known as the Hanging Church (El Muallaqa) is one of the oldest churches in Egypt and the history of a church on this site dates to the 3rd century AD.

Barrel shaped roof

The Hanging (The Suspended) Church is named for its location above a gatehouse of Babylon Fortress, the Roman fortress in Coptic Cairo (Old Cairo); its nave is suspended over a passage. The church is accessible by twenty-nine steps; early travelers to Cairo dubbed it "the Staircase Church." The land surface has risen by some six meters since the Roman period so that the Roman tower is mostly buried below ground, reducing the visual impact of the church's elevated position. The entrance from the street is through iron gates under a pointed stone arch. The nineteenth-century facade with twin bell towers is then seen beyond a narrow courtyard decorated with modern art biblical designs. Up the steps and through the entrance is a further small courtyard leading to the eleventh-century outer porch.

The virgin Mary church (Hanging church)

Importance

Yuhanna-Mercurius

The Hanging Church is the most famous Coptic Christian church in Cairo, as well as possibly the first built in Basilican style. It was probably built during the patriarchate of Isaac (690–92), though an earlier church building may have elsewhere existed dating as early as the 3rd or 4th century. However, the earliest mention of the church was a statement in the biography of the patriarch Joseph I (831–49), when the governor of Egypt visited the establishment. The church was largely rebuilt by the Pope Abraham (975–78) and has seen many other restorations including an extensive repair and restoration of the church and its surroundings completed in 2011. Objects of historical interest that were no longer of service went to the Coptic Museum.

Seat of Coptic Pope

The Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria was, historically, Alexandria, Egypt. But as ruling powers moved away from Alexandria to Cairo after the Arab invasion of Egypt during Pope Christodolos's tenure, Cairo became the fixed and official residence of the Coptic Pope at the Hanging Church in 1047.

the Sanctuary

Infighting between the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus and the El Muallaqa Church broke out due to the wishes of that patriarch's desire to be consecrated in the Hanging Church, a ceremony that traditionally took place at Saints Sergius and Bacchus.

Holy icons

Revered Icons

The Hanging Church has 110 icons, the oldest of which dates back to the 8th century, but most of them date to the 18th century. Nakhla Al-Baraty Bey gave some of them as gifts, in 1898, when he was the overseer of the church. The iconostasis of the central sanctuary is made of ebony inlaid with ivory, and is surmounted by icons of the Virgin Mary and the Twelve Apostles. The main altar (Egyptian Arabic: haikal) screen is made of ebony inlaid with ivory that is carved into segments showing several Coptic Cross designs that date back to around the 12th or 13th century. Over the altar screen lies a long row of seven large icons, the central one of which is Christ seated on the Throne. On one side, the icons of the Virgin Mary, Archangel Gabriel and St Peter are lined up. On the other side icons of St. John the Baptist, Archangel Michael and St. Paul.

Alexandria By Tram

DISCOVERING ALEXANDRIA BY TRAM      October 30, 2003   One of the best ways of discovering Alexandria is by tram. The main Ramlah line  which is also the oldest, leaves from Maydan Sa`d Zaghluwl (square) in the city center and follows a route which runs more or less parallel to the "Korniysh" (Corniche). It was originally a railway line, built and operated by a British company commissioned by khidiwiy (Khedive) Isma`iylto service various coastal towns and villages scattered among the dunes from which the name"Ramlah" is derived. Saad Zaghloul At the time the area to the east "al-Raml "sand had a population of at most five hundred inhabitants, but the beauty of the site and the reputedly therapeutic value of the climate soon encouraged prominent Alexandrians to establish their summer residences there.  Over the years the Ramlah suburb became a permanent residential district and the population increased to such an extent that today only a few of the old villas have survived the high-rise construction of the last few decades.  The observant visitor will, however, notice the few surviving remnants of extravagant early 20th-century architecture. The Ramlahline opened in 1863 and operated for the first year with horsedrawn carriages. The following year steam engines were introduced. The terminus was on the present site of the Bulkeley Station, and there were departures every hour. In 1868 the line was extended to Schutz Station, and, twenty years later, Old San Stefan to San Stefano; in 1891 new stations Tharwat Pasha, Laurens, Saraya were added. In 1904 the line was electrified and a new branch line was constructed to create a more direct link between Bulkeley and San Stefano. Finally the line was extended in 1910 to Victoria Station, which is now the terminus.  Ramlah Station the tram terminus is in an extremely busy part of the city,  invaded from dawn until dusk by a host of street vendors and small craftsmen such as the traditional shoe-shiners. Near the present site of the station and opposite the modem Hotel "Metropole", theCAESAREUM once stood, a sumptuous temple built by Cleopatra for Mark Anthony and completed, after their double suicide, by Octavian  (Augustus), who dedicated it during his lifetime to imperial worship. In A.D. 356 the temple was sacked by Constantine II, and razed to the ground . It was here that the famous mathematician Hypatia was killed by being stoned to death in 415 A.D. Her murder marks the height of the persecution of nonbelievers in Alexandria.  In his deceptively named "Cleopatra's Needles' that decorated the temple, and which remained in Alexandria until they were transported to London's  Embankment (in 1877) andNew York's Central Park (in 1879), where they still stand. The pink Aswan granite "needles" had originally been erected in front  of the temple of Heliopolis in Cairo by Thutmose IIIbefore being transported to Alexandria on the orders of Julius Caesar.   Stations: "Mazariytah" the name of the first station on the tram line, is a  corruption of "lazaretto" (built nearby by Muhammad `Aliy in 1831 and subsequently  transferred to the other end of the city). En route to the station the line passes the Ibrahiym  al-Qa'id Mosque, which was built in 1951 by Mario Rossi. Al-Shatbiy named after a Muslim suwfiy who died in1272, is situated outside the old city walls. It is here that the cemeteries for members of the city's non-Muslim faiths (the main Muslim cemetery is at Bab Sidra) can be found, which were built in the mid-19th century near an ancient necropolis.  Al-Ibrahiymiyah services a district constructed on agricultural land belonging to ‘Amiyr(Prince) Ibrahyim Ahmad, which was sold off in lots in 1888 by a real estate company Sporting is named after the 100 faddan/acres Sporting Club, founded in 1889,  and still remains one of the city's more fashionable districts. Siydiy Gabir is the name not only  of the tram station, but also of the railway station on the main Alexandria-Cairo line and the district surrounding the nearby mausoleum of Siydiy Gabir (1145-1217), who was an Andalusian traveler. The tramline forks after Mustafa Pasha and Bukeley stations, merges again at San Stefano. The more direct, northern line passes through Saba Pasha, Glymenopoulos Ziziniyah, Laurens, Saraya and  finally to Siydiy Bishr .  Siydiy Bishr is renowned for its unspoiled beaches, and it was here that  the remains, of the 2nd-century Ra's al-Suwdah temple were discovered in 1936. Victoria was named afterVictoria College, founded the British in 1899. The college was renamed  the aI-Nasr Collegeafter the Suez Crisis. In 1909 it moved its premises to the far end of the Ramlah line, but only after it had managed to ensure that the line would be extended to  one of its entrances.  Although committees were often formed to give "Egyptian" names to all the stations on this line, most of them are still known by their original names, which they were located, evoking the topography and cosmopolitanism of Alexandria.    ©  Ishinan 2003 Visit powerpoint of Alexandria, on my other Blog... Districts-of-Alexandria

  

  

STELLA "BEER OF EGYPT"

STELLA'S GRANDPA 1897-1947Credits: Samir Raafat (www.egy.com)
Egyptian Mail, Saturday, June 14, 1997; Cairo Times, May 14, 1998

Even the most abstaining teetotaler heard of the golden liquid in the green bottle sporting the yellow label and blue star. To her credit la blonde Stella, as Egypt's leading beer been called for almost a century, survived a whopping recession, two world wars, a coup d'etat, sequestration and more recently a spate of religious conservatism.

The older generations may still remember how, if arak was not available, the affordable Stella (6.5 piasters per bottle in the 1940s!) always took precedence at the Kit-Kat, the Dahabia, the Parisienne, Chez Badia or Casino al-Shagara. Not a Christmas or Shabatt passed where Stella was not present on the table whenever guests appeared. Sham al-Nessim would invariably mean fessikh with Stella. Some old timers argue that it was thanks to Stella that

3 Brands of Stella

Aussies and Kiwis defeated the Pils-drinking Krauts at Alamein!

Incorporated in Belgium --home to the world famous Stella Artois-- the first producers of the Egyptian Stella opened shop in May 1898 under the name of the Crown Brewery Company of Cairo. But in order to avoid confusion with its older Alexandria sibling by the same name, the directors quickly decided on a name change: Société Anonyme Brasserie des Pyramides (Pyramids Brewery). For several decades thereafter, the fortress-like beer plant in the district of Bein al-Sarayat remained one Giza's most famous landmarks. Fortunately, the plant is still with us today.

Pyramids Brewery's first public share offering comprised 15,000 shares priced at FF 100 each. Due to high start-up costs, the company was obliged to launch a second share issue in November 1904 bringing total shares on the market to 20,000. But with careful investments and the combination of Belgian know-how and equipage, Pyramids Brewery gradually displaced existing mom n' pop beer manufacturers and stood up to famous imported brand names including Bremen's Burton Beck & Co. and the widespread Guinness Stout.

At first, treated Nile water was used for the production of the golden ale, but finding it was not up to the required standard, Pyramids Brewery resorted to aquifers. Another change in keeping with growing demand was the necessity to keep a constant stock of 6,281 hectoliters with a guaranteed four-month storage period to ensure quality. 

All these changes came with a hefty price tag yet by year-end 1906, Pyramids Brewery made it into the black showing a profit of FF

A cold beer in Gouna

164,023 with a 30% increase in overall production. Board chairman Chakour Pasha could now toast his fellow directors Messrs. L. Carton de Wiart, Florent Lambert, J. Debonne, Alfonso Colucci and L. Dumonceau. And with 34 brasseries and beer halls already registered in Cairo, there would be many more toasts to come.

In Alexandria meanwhile, beer drinkers were more than satisfied with their own local brew. In fact they had a choice between an ale produced by the Swiss Bomonti Brothers of Karmous, near Alexandria's Mahmoudia Canal, or that which was marketed by the Alexandria Crown Brewery Company launched at Ibrahimieh in 1897. It would take a series of mergers and acquisitions -- the first in 1909 and the last on Christmas day 1922 -- before the emerging Bomonti & Pyramids Beer Company could call itself Egypt's leading brewery. By then, Stella beer had become the symbol of reliability and good times. Things got even better when a million thirsty Allied soldiers passed through Egypt during WW2. By its fiftieth year, Stella beer had become an international brand name without ever leaving Egyptian territory.

A Stella in 1952 for 5 piasters

After the war, with a capital of LE 192,875, Bomonti & Pyramids Beer Company underwent major changes in conformity with the New Company Act requiring larger Egyptian representation on company boards. This was when Cotton King Mohammed Ahmed Fargahli Pasha also became known as King Beer reference to his becoming the first Egyptian to run Bomonti & Pyramids. It was about this time that the company entered into a technical-assistance agreement with Heineken.

In July 1953, a year after the hurried departure of another king --Farouk of Egypt--the "Bomonti" in the company's name was dropped and the "Pyramids" arabized to Al Ahram. More changes still when in 1962, Ahram Beverages along with Egypt's entire private sector succumbed to sequestration and nationalization. Crown Brewery Company of Alexandria which had so far resisted merging with its Cairo nemesis, did so by ministerial decree. Competition and quality suffered as government appointees, free from shareholder accountability, were coerced into importing the company's needs from the Soviet Union and its Eastern satellites. The era of a flat, stingless Stella had arrived.

It was during this time that a non-alcoholic brand --Birell-- was launched as a means of placating growing anti-secular sentiment calling for the summary prohibition of the golden ale. A compromise was however found when alcoholic beverages were banned from non-touristic sites and during the month of Ramadan. But time was on Stella' s side. By successfully launching Egypt's first ever GDR financing in 1997, Ahram Beverages Company found itself at the center of media attention and at the vanguard of Egypt's move towards privatization. Despite those who had exaggerated Stella's demise, the golden froth is today the beacon of economic change. Another beer-making milestone achieved in time for Stella's 100th birthday.

Credits to owner of this article (Samir Raafat) 

GROPPI OF CAIRO

                

Picture of Groppi (2002) Photo Y. Sharobim

GROPPI, once the most celebrated tearoom this side of the Mediterranean was the creation of Giacomo Groppi (1863-1947) a native of Lugano, Switzerland. In time Maison Groppi became chief purveyor of chocolate to monarchs and pashas throughout the MidEast. Whenever pashas, beys and resident-foreigners traveled to Europe they took with them cartons filled with Groppi chocolates. During WW-II King Farouk air freighted via Khartoum, Entebbe, Dakar, Lisbon, Dublin a lacquered box emblazoned with the royal arms of Egypt and Great Britain. Inside, to the delight of the then-princesses Elizabeth and Margaret of England, were 100 kilos of Groppi chocolates.

Groppi Stickers

After a short apprenticeship with an uncle in Lugano and a brief employment in Provence, south of France, Giacomo Groppi arrived in Egypt in the 1880s to take up employment at Maison Gianola, a popular Swiss pastry and teashop on Bawaki Street, Cairo. In 1890, Giacomo Groppi, now aged 27, bought out Gianola's interests in its Alexandria's Rue de France branch and proceeded to open his own pastry and dairy shop.

By 1900 Groppi was running a successful enterprise annually exporting 100,000 cartons of eggs to the United Kingdom.

At Maison Groppi's second Alexandrine branch, on Cherif Street, Giacomo introduced crème chantilly for the first time in Egypt. This was a new technological feat which he acquired while touring the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Groppi was also the first chocolatier in Egypt to employ a female staff. In 1906, he sold his company to a Frenchman, Auguste Baudrot, and retired. For the next 60 years, Baudrot was regarded first amongst equals whenever compared to Alexandria's other famous tea rooms: Pastroudis, Trianon and Athineos. All three were run by Greeks.

Having lost his entire savings during the economic depression of 1907 Giacomo Groppi was obliged to return to what he knew best: making chocolates, pastries and dairy products. But out of deference to Baudrot, Groppi moved his activities to Cairo's al-Maghrabi Street (later, Adly Pasha Street). With only "La Marquise de Sévigné" and "Maison Mathieu" (renamed Sault) pausing as competition, Maison Groppi was ensured success in the nation's capital.

Old picture of Groppi

The formal opening took place on 23 December 1909. By the time WW-I broke out, Groppi's Tea Garden had become a favorite with the British Army of Occupation. A deli was added enhancing Groppi's image as the purveyor of quality food products.

In 1922 Maison Groppi inaugurated its own cold storage company--Industrie du Froid--employing over 120 workers and producing a daily output of 2,400 blocs of ice.

Coffee

In 1928, Giacomo Groppi's son, Achille, launched his famous ice cream, a technology he imported from the United States. The names of his delicious specialties were as exceptional as they tasted: Sfogliatella, Morocco, Mau Mau, Peche Melba, Maruska, Comtesse Marie, Surprise Neapolitaine. Cairenes were grateful to Achille for yet another creation: the Groppi tearoom situated on Midan Soliman Pasha (now, Talaat Harb).

Decades later, Groppi of Cairo would open a terrace café in Heliopolis overlooking Avenue des Pyramides and the legendary Heliopolis Palace Hotel (now, Uruba Presidential Palace).

To accommodate the less privileged Maison Groppi launched a chain of pastry and coffee shops "A l'Americaine".

Groppi Heliopolis

Thankfully Groppi's two main branches miraculously escaped complete destruction during the anti-British Black Saturday riots of January 1952 which ended with the burning of Cairo. In March 1954 Egypt's emerging strongman Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered the placing of a bomb in Groppi's patisserie. While the detonation caused widespread panic, thankfully no one was hurt. The objective of Nasser's macabre exercise was to promote a feeling of public insecurity. The power struggle among the Free Officers had reached a new climax and the vicious smear campaign against Egypt's first president General Mohammed Naguib had somehow made its way inside Groppi.

Groppi Gardens Adly Pacha St.

Forty years later, the legend of Groppi exists in name only. The rot and decay of the socialist 1960s had taken their heavy toll. By the time Egypt returned to the ways of an open economy, Groppi's descendants had already abandoned the trade and left Egypt.

The rest is history. 
Article contributed by: Aziz Matta