تعتبر سورية من الدول الأکثر إثارة للتراث الثقافي في العالم من حيث العدد والمعالم التاريخية لآثارها. فقد حدد أکثر من 1200 موقعاً ذو الأهمية الثقافية والدينية والتاريخية بتعاون دولي مع الهيئات الحکومية السورية، والتي أصبحت جميعها الآن مهددة ومتضررة. أما في المدن السورية فيتواجد التراث الثقافي کجزء من الحياة اليومية فيها. حيث يعيش السکان في المناطق والأحياء والنسج العمرانية القديمة، يصلون في المساجد والکنائس التاريخية ويتسوقون في البازارات القديمة ويرتادون الساحات والفراغات الأثرية. لذا فإن تدمير التراث السوري يمثل مخاوفاً اجتماعية فورية مما يزيد من الحاجة إلى معالجة حماية النسيج الثقافي للبلاد.
Syria is one of the world's most impressive Cultural Heritages in terms of the number and historical significance of its monuments. The city of Sweida could be considered as a part of this human heritage .
The purpose of the research is to create opportunities for the social and economic development of the historic city center of Sweida and to revive the central street and its important living spaces; small church, square and Roman theater, through the rehabilitation and restoration of selected elements in addition to the creation of social and cultural activities .
During the crisis, Sweida hosted thousands of displaced people putting pressure on the city's resources. The heritage sites have suffered from deterioration in the interest of their preservation. Despite heritage sights' importance, the residents haven't been interested in these sites and after the crisis began, the visits to this site dropped dramatically. All monuments became a question of speculation and many have been ruined by unfortunate actions. Some buildings were completely replaced by senseless unhealthy buildings or were built on the remains of ruins that belong to ancient civilizations; other structures were badly restored by adding new building materials not integrated with the original one. Unfortunately, there is an approach to destroy ancient structures and compete to build multistory buildings. In other cases, the most ancient structures are not maintained and transformed into informal dumps.
Enhancement of the city's built heritage has the potential to contribute greatly to general ‘quality of life and helps to generate a ‘sense of place'. For people, preserving the heritage will lead to preserving the traditions and the culture of the city. That means creating public places for socio-cultural events, raising awareness about historical values, and promoting dialogues of local actors (the municipality, academia, chamber of commerce) around heritage .