Religious, Spiritual sights in Algiers
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Notre Dame d'Afrique
The Byzantine-inspired Notre Dame d’Afrique, known locally as Madame Afrique, sits above the bustle of the city, seemingly impervious to the fact that the people who created it and filled its pews have long gone. The idea for the church is said to have come from two women of Lyon, who missed the shrine that sits above their native city and who placed a statue of the virgin in the hollow of an olive tree on the north of the city. The basilica was finally consecrated in 1872 by Bishop Lavigerie, founder of the White Fathers. Four years later, the statue was crowned ‘queen of Africa’ with the approval of the Pope in Rome. The date of that event, 30 April, has become the st…
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A
Djemaa el-Kebir
A few steps from the Djemma el-Djedid, the Djemaa el-Kebir continues a tradition that goes back to the early history of Algiers. On a rise above the inner port, early Berber and Phoenician inhabitants built places of prayer here, which the Romans turned into a temple; later it was converted into a Christian basilica. One apse of the basilica faced east and was hung with carpets and icons. This was later torn down and replaced, in the 11th century, by the mosque, which has since been much altered and enlarged. Inside the five doors the prayer hall is supported by rows of columns, 72 in all, and contains a cedarwood minbar which carries an inscription stating that the mihra…
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B
Djemaa el-Djedid
Colonial French town planners cleared many Ottoman buildings when they redesigned the Algiers waterfront and laid out what is now the place des Martyrs, but they left the Djemaa el-Djedid. Contrary to its name, the New Mosque, sometimes also called the Pêcherie Mosque, was built in 1660 on the site of an earlier Quranic school and paid for by public subscription. The mosque is unusual for Algiers, built in a recognisably Turkish style, with a series of domes and vaults, although the minaret is Andalusian in style. It is also unusual for being designed as a cross: local legend has it that the architect was a Christian, supposedly executed for his trickery. It has two entra…
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C
Djemma Ali Bitchine
In the rough days of Algerian piracy, when a man might be snatched off a ship in the high sea and given a choice of slavery or conversion, there were many so-called renegades, people around the Mediterranean who changed religion. Ali Bitchine was one. A sailor from Venice, his original name may have been Piccinino. Whoever he had been in Italy, in Algiers he was a sailor who rose to become a grand admiral of the fleet. In 1622 he built the Djemma Ali Bitchine. The plan is unusual, the domed design clearly influenced by Italian or Byzantine churches. Like several other mosques, this one was used as a church during the French occupation, when it was known as Notre Dame des …
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