moved eastward until it found its present location at the bottom of the Accaoui hill. The first palace was built by Nicolas Sursock, probably on what is now the St Nicolas Stairs, and hosted Russia's Grand Duke Nicholas when he visited Beirut in 1872. Other villas included: Taswinat al-Tueni, a palace built by Georges Tueni in the early 1860s and named for the fence that ringed the extensive grounds; the Fadlallah Bustros Palace, completed around 1863 and now housing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;Moussa Sursock's palace, completed around 1870; and Elias Sursock's palace, which hosted General Gouraud during the French Mandate and was demolished in the 1960s. The last major villa was built for Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock in 1912, and upon his death, he left the palace to the Municipality of Beirut as a land grant or waqf, to become what is now the Sursock Museum. These palatial villas remain emblematic of Achrafieh, with one such palace, built for Abdullah Bustros, being sold for $22 million in 2018. Besides the bourgeois families, many Christian refugees came to settle in the expanding suburbs, starting with the 1860 inter-communal conflict in Mount Lebanon, between Maronites and Druze, and in Damascus, between Orthodox Christians and Muslims. Dimitri Youssef Debbas was one such refugee from the Damascus conflict, who settled in Achrafieh and wrote a memoir of the conflict. Historian Leila Fawaz describes how Dimitri Debbas was part of the first caravan fleeing Damascus, and placed into quarantine outside the city. The Bustros family persuaded the Mutessarif to allow the refugees into the town, and they were housed in the Ecole des Trois Docteurs, near the St George Cathedral. As the school became overcrowded, some were given shelter in Khalil Sursock's house, with families staying in the cellar, and men (including Dimitri Debbas) sleeping in the open. Dimitri Debbas, who had been part of a successful business family in Damascus, rebuilt his wealth from Beirut and built a residence of his own in Achrafieh, on what is now known as Montee Debbas. Lebanese Civil War Given its large Christian population, Achrafieh was a focal point of conflict during the Lebanese Civil War. The area was the Beirut heartland of the Christian militias under the Lebanese Front. The Hundred Days' War in 1978 saw the Christian militias of the Lebanese Front fight the Syrian deterrent forces. In 1982, Lebanon's president-elect Bachir Gemayel was assassinated by