BBC Middle East Analyst
ReutersHistoric buildings in Mosul, including churches and mosques, open again throughout the years of devastation as a result of the absorption of the Iraqi city of the extremist Islamic State (IC) group.
The project, organized and funded by UNESCO, began a year after it was defeated and expelled from the city in northern Iraq in 2017.
UNESCO Director General Audre Azuly and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani attend a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the re-opening.
Local craftsmen, residents and representatives of all Mosul religious communities will also be there.
In 2014, Mosul was occupied, which has been seen as a symbol of tolerance and joint existence between various religious and ethnic communities in Iraq for centuries.
The group imposed its exceptional ideology on the city, aimed at minorities and kills opponents.
Three years later, a US-backed union coalition with the Iraqi army and the state-related militias installed intense land and air offensive to pull the city back from Island control. The most bunch of battles focused on the old town, where the group's fighters made the last position.
Mosul's photographer Ali Al-Barudi remembers the horror that congratulated him when he first entered the area, shortly after the battle down the street in the street in the summer of 2017.
He saw the gloriously distorted al-Hadba Minaret, known as “Hunchback”, which has been emblematic of Mosul for hundreds of years, in ruins.
“It was like a ghost city,” he says. “Dead bodies everywhere, a painful smell and terrible scenes of the city and a silhouette without minaret hadba.
“Not the city we knew – it was like a metamorphosis – that we never imagined even in our oldest nightmares. I was silent for a few days. I lost my voice. I lost my mind.”
Eighty percent of the Old Town of Mosul, on the west coast of Tiger, was destroyed during the three -year occupation of the IS.
Not only churches, mosques and old houses had to be repaired, but also the public spirit of those who lived there for so long in relative harmony between religions and ethnicities.
The huge task of recovery began under the UNESCO auspices with a budget of $ 115 million (£ 93 million) that the agency has managed to become much of it from the United Arab Emirates and the European Union.
Father Olivier Pacilon – Dominican priest – returned to Mosul to help the supervision of the restoration of one of the key buildings, the Notre -Dam de L'Ant monastery, known at the local level like Al -saiaa, which was founded nearly 200 years.
“We started, trying to collect the team first – a team made up of people from old Mosul from different denominations – Christians, Muslims who work all together,” he says.
Father Pokilon says that the unification of communities was the biggest challenge and the biggest achievement.
“If you want to restore buildings that you need to restore trust first – if you do not restore confidence, it is useless to reconstruct the walls of these buildings because they will become a goal for other communities.”
In response to the whole project – which included the restoration of 124 old houses and two particularly subtle mansions – was the chief architect Maria Rita Acetoso, who came to Mosul directly from restoration works for UNESCO in Afghanistan.
“This project demonstrates that culture can also create jobs, can encourage skills development, and in addition can make participants feel part of something meaningful,” she says.
She hopes that reconstruction can restore hope and allow the restoration of cultural identity and memory of people.
“I think this is especially important for young generations growing in a situation of conflict and political instability,” she adds.
UNESCO says more than 1,300 local young people have been trained in traditional skills while about 6,000 new jobs have been created.
More than 100 classrooms were renovated in Mosul. Thousands of historical fragments have been restored and cataloged by the ruins.
Among the numerous engineers involved in the recovery, 30% are women.
Eight years on the bells ring again through Mosul of the Al-Tahera Church, whose roof collapsed after serious damage under, was occupied in 2017.
Other Mosul's main attractions have also been restored-the minarets of al-Hadba, the Dominican Monastery and the Al Nuri Mosque Complex are stirred.
And people have been able to return to the houses that have been home to their families for centuries.
A resident, Mustafa, said: “My house was built in 1864 – unfortunately it was partially destroyed during the liberation of Mosul and it is inappropriate to live there, especially with my children.
“So I decided to move to my parents' house. I was very pleased and excited when I saw my house again being rebuilt.”
EPAThe Abdullah family also lived in a 19th -century house in the Old Town, when the area was a wave trade center – which is why they say their home is so valuable to them.
“After UNESCO restored my house, I came back,” he says. “I cannot describe the feeling I had, because after seeing all the destruction that happened there, I decided that I would never be able to return and live again there.”
The signs of what the Mosul people endure is yet to cure – just as much of Iraq remains in a tender state.
But the rebirth of the old town from the ruins is a hope for a better future -as Ali Al -Barudi continues to document the evolution of his favorite home day during the day.
“It's really like seeing a dead person to return to your life in a very, very beautiful way – this is the true spirit of the city that returns to life,” he says.