Our History

It will be necessary to wait for the arrival of emirs Assafyins to the power in 1540, to attend the return of the inhabitants and the resumption of the activities in Bickfaya-Mhaydsseh. And so a large number of families left their place of origin to come and establish there. It is the case for example, of the Gemayel family who left “Geige” their home town in 1545 and set up Mar Abda's church in its current place.
The construction of other churches followed: saint Michel in 1592, Saint Georges of Greeks Catholics in 1750, Saydet El Najat's convent in 1836 and its Church in 1858.

Year 1840 constitutes a key date in the history of Bickfaya which became under the reign of emirs Abillamaa, the capital of the Christian ' qaemmaqam '. Emir Haidar Abillamaa set up a big seraglio there which was the seat of the government. Restored under the mandate of the President Amine Gemayel in 1982 who made it a presidential palace, the big seraglio was classified a cultural heritage. It constitutes nowadays, a big historical and architectural wealth for the village.
Despite the massacres of 1860 and everything that ensued from it, the region of Bickfaya-Mhaydsseh pursued its economic, political and social expansion. And so the road of Antélias-Bickfaya was inaugurated in 1880. The section Bickfaya-Dhour el Choueir and the junction Bickfaya Beit Chabab followed some years.

The first City Council was created in 1889 and elected Dr Amine Gemayel as President of the municipality. A large number of projects of infrastructure were achieved under this mandate.

The First World War did not spare the village which was largely demolished by the Turkish army which massacred a large number of its inhabitants. The survivors were then confronted to the worst tragedy that Lebanon ever knew: a famine due to the waves of grasshoppers which infested the mountain, decimating all the fields of plantation, took thousands of persons who succumbed to the hunger.

The period of the French mandate allowed the village of Bickfaya-Mhaydsseh to get back its breath and be born again. Houses were reconstructed and numerous businesses and industries came to become established there, so draining a consequent economic activity. The tourism got developed in a notorious way, creating new opportunities at the level of hotel business, restoration and services. The village became again a cultural pole, introducing events which exceeded its borders, such as the festival of the flowers which the General de Gaulle attended in 1942.
Politics also had a dominating place in this period, when was created the party Kataëb established in 1935 by Sheik Pierre Gemayel, as well as other political parties.

Grand Bickfaya was formed by Bhersaf, Sakiet el Misk, Bickfaya and Mhaydsseh continued to develop on the different following levels: economic, social, cultural and demographic and others…
In 1964 Grand Bickfaya was divided into two municipalities: the first one grouping together Bhersaf and Sakiet el Misk, the second constituted by Bickfaya and Mhaydsseh. In 1982, Bickfaya took back the bows of the Lebanese political scene, the Present Sheik Amine Gemayel having transferred the Seraglio of Bickfaya in a presidential palace till the end of his mandate in 1988.

Bigger than a village but smaller than a city, this unique holiday resort in Metn, remains the inescapable address for all the visitors. With the resumption of the cultural activities, in particular the festivals introduced by the municipality since 2010, Bickfaya-Mhaydsseh takes up with its tradition of a placewhere life are enjoyable.