Abstract:

The palace known as Qasr ibn Wardan it is nowadays located in inner Syrian steppe. Although we will focus in the palace itself, actually Qasr ibn Wardan is a set of buildings with a church and probably a barracks. Beyond its good degree of conservation, its importance lies in being one of the few known examples of justinianic civilian architecture in the whole Near East. Rediscovered at the end of the nineteenth century, it has been studied since then. Thanks to the restoration works carried out between 1970s and 1990s, it was possible to study again its remains, highlighting F. De’Maffei’s work, published in 1995. Our paper pretends to retake the study of this building, offer a 3D restitution for a better comprehension of its building process and pose new hypothesis about the motivations that led to its construction from AD 561 onwards.