Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa
كاتدرائية سيدة طرطوسA fortified crusader cathedral, and the national museum of Tartus since 1956.
Closed for structural restoration since a government report of 22 May 2026. No reopening date given.
← Where we go
Tartus
طرطوسA Crusader cathedral on shore, and Syria’s only inhabited island three kilometres out
A working port with a crusader cathedral at its heart and a short boat to Arwad, Syria’s only inhabited island, where boats are still built from templates kept in someone’s head.
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Tortosa is the best-preserved crusader church in the country, built as a fortified cathedral and used since as a mosque, then Ottoman barracks, then — from 1956 — the national museum of Tartus.
It is currently closed. A government report of 22 May 2026 described it as shut for structural restoration, tied to a July 2026 agreement between the Directorate-General of Antiquities and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. No reopening date has been given.
Arwad is three kilometres offshore and takes twenty minutes. Phoenician Arados, and still a boat-building town — which is the actual reason to go, more than the fortress.
What is actually there
Condition notes are given for each site, including where something was destroyed or is closed. They are the point of this page.
Arwad Island
جزيرة أروادPhoenician Arados. A dense little island town of boatyards, and the only inhabited island Syria has.
Inhabited and working — a fishing and boat-building town, not a monument.
Amrit — the Ma’abed
عمريتA Phoenician sanctuary south of the city: a rock-cut court with a shrine standing on a cube in the middle of it.
Open, DGAM-managed. The rock-cut court is substantially preserved.
The Spindle Towers (al-Maghazel)
المغازلPhoenician funerary towers at Amrit, standing over rock-cut burial chambers.
Both towers still standing, weathered but structurally present.
Safita — the White Tower
برج صافيتاA Templar keep in the hills inland, its ground floor still in use as a church.
Intact and standing. Some reports of 2023 earthquake cracking are unconfirmed.
Conservation
The cathedral-museum is closed for restoration. The old city and Arwad are inhabited and functioning.
Access
The UK FCDO advises against all travel to Syria as a whole, with no coastal carve-out (updated 2 September 2026).
On the table
Sayadieh — spiced fish with rice — and whatever the boats brought in that morning.