Downtown churches contribute to the rich religious background of Lebanon. The Greek-Orthodox Cathedral of Saint George, built in 1767, was the oldest functioning church in Beirut until the recent war in Lebanon. The Greek-Catholic cathedral of Saint Elias, a mid-19th century church with its vaulted interior, was once decorated with a marble iconostasis.
The Saint Louis Church of the Capucins Inaugurated in 1863 served the foreign community of the Latin rite in Beirut. The Evangelical Church was built in 1867 by a group of Evangelical Anglo-American missionaries. The Maronite Cathedral of Saint George was built in 1888 with a neo-classical style and was completely restored in 2000.