In a book dedicated to the nearby village of Enfeh, the specialist Jocelyne Awad explains that the convent would have been built around 1115, by Cistercian monks, on the ruins of a pagan time.
On the side of the legend, it is said that the building was built by a rich man who led a disreputable life: to do penance, he would have chosen to spend the rest of his life in a cave at the level of the current convent, of chain themselves in this improvised "dungeon" and throw the key into the sea, before spending the end of their days in prayer. A fisherman gave him the alms of a fish, in whose belly the man found... the key to his chains. To thank God, he decided to build this monastery.
Be that as it may, the convent has experienced the violence of wars over the centuries: the Franks who were there were massacred in the 13th century by the Mamluks. During the famine of the 18th century, it housed premises, with the fifty or so monks who resided there. It was bombed during the First World War. During the civil war in Lebanon, in 1976, it was looted and burned.
It is the subject of constant restorations, such as that of the frescoes of the church, which represent scenes from the New and Old Testaments.
Nowadays, people come to visit the convent of Saydet el Natour to discover its Cistercian Crusader architecture, soak up its extraordinarily peaceful and gentle atmosphere, and meditate there for those who wish. You can also leave with sachets of salt from the salt pans below. Indeed, the 800,000 m2 of the estate include saltworks, facing the sea, which produce local salt renowned for its quality.
