Qornet Shehwan is a small town in the Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...

 area of Lebanon's

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

 Matn District

Matn District

Matn , sometimes spelled Metn, is a district in the Mount Lebanon Governorate of Lebanon, east of the Lebanon's capital Beirut...

. It was little known to the outside world until the year 2000, when it became the headquarters of the Qornet Shehwan Gathering

Qornet Shehwan Gathering

The Qornet Shehwan Gathering is a Lebanese political organization, comprising politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen, mostly Christian and ranging in ideology from the centre-right to the center-left. The organization is not a political party in the classical sense: its members belong to,...

, a mainly Christian coalition of politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen opposed to the Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

n military

Military of Syria

The Syrian Armed Forces are the military forces of Syria. They consist of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Air Defense Force.-Manpower:The President of Syria is the commander in chief of the Syrian armed forces, comprising some 646,500 troops upon mobilization. The military is a conscripted force;...

 occupation of Lebanon.

Demography

The inhabitants of Qornet Shehwan are Lebanese and followers of the Catholic Church. The town is the seat of the Maronite Archbishop

Archbishop

An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...

ric of Matn. The town has numerous churches, including the historic Sts. Peter

Saint Peter

Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...

 & Paul Church.

Education

Qornet Shehwan is home to numerous private educational institutes, including the prestigious Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....

 school, a trilingual institute founded in 1884, and Saint Coeur which is a semi private school.

Culture

The town is home to the Pharès Zoghbi Cultural Foundation, which is a library of 65,000 books in French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic.

Medical Institutes

St Vincent de Paul Dispensary is located in Qornet Shehwan. The Lebanese Red Cross also has a first-aid center in the town.