Tartous

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Image:Tartous-map.png Tartous (Arabic: طرطوس, also transliterated Tartus) is Syria's second largest port city after Latakia, and capital of Tartous governorate. The city was known as Antaradus in Latin or Antartus and Tortosa by the Crusaders. Tartous is 220 km northwest of Damascus and less than an hour's drive south of Latakia.

Not much remains of the Phoenician Antaradus (Anti-Aradus - the town facing Arwad), the mainland settlement that was linked to the more important and larger settlement in Syria's only offshore island Arwad. The few Phoenician ruins that remain on the mainland are at the nearby site of Amrit.

The city was favored by Constantine for its devotion to the cult of the Virgin Mary. The first chapel to be dedicated to the Virgin is said to have been built here in the 3rd century. Two centuries later an earthquake hit the chapel and the altar was miraculously saved. This miracle was further enhanced by an icon of the Virgin believed to be painted by St. Luke resembling the one in Seidnaya. The church of Our Lady of Tortosa was built upon this miracle by the Crusaders in 1123. It now houses this altar and has received many pilgrims. The Cathedral itself was used as a mosque after the Muslim reconquest of the city, then as a barracks by the Ottomans. It was renovated under the French and is now the city museum, containing antiquities recovered from Amrit and many other sites in the region.

Nur ad-Din retrieved Tartous from the Crusaders for a brief time before it was lost again. Tartous came under the control of the Templars who rebuilt and redeveloped its defenses as well as those at Arwad. The city was recaptured by Saladin in 1188, when the Templars locked themselves into the keep. However it was rebuilt and remained under Templar control until 1291. Tartous was the last outpost of the Templars on the Syrian mainland before departing to Arwad, which they kept for another decade. One of the Crusaders' citadels, Marqab, is located inland from the nearby coastal city of Banyas and remains in very good condition.

The historic centre of Tartous consists of more recent buildings built on and inside the walls of the Crusader-era fortress, whose moat still separates this old town from the modern city on its northern and eastern sides. Outside the fortress there are few historic remains, with the exception of the former cathedral.

Tartous is also the name of a governate of Syria. It contains the city of Tartous.ar:طرطوس (محافظة) de:Tartus he:טרטוס it:Tartus pl:Tartous