The Casbah of Algiers’s Transformation Between 1833 and 1859: Expropriation,Concession,and Plot Remodeling

Property Transfer as Part of Urban Reorganization

Following French occupation, a considerable percentage of the real estate located in the Casbah became the domain of the French administration. This was the result of the seizure of Beylik buildings or Government property from the Ottoman period, on one hand, and vacant and seized property managed by Beït-el-Mal, a precolonial administrative institution, ¹¹ on the other hand. In addition, this period saw creation of the French public domain, the recovery of vacant property belonging to a part of the indigenous population that had fled the city in 1830, and the seizure of private property or property dependent on corporations ¹² given as usufruct and managed until then by the habous or wakf administration. ¹³

This appropriation of the land by the dispossession of the previous occupants, as emphasized by François Dumasy, was carried out by the military authority requisitions and demolitions falling under a war right to ensure the protection of the city. ¹⁴ However, it was also necessary to take into account, during urban development, the emergence of a European population from an immigration movement which began in the 1830s.

In 1853, Algiers counted a little less than twenty-five thousand Europeans ¹⁵ who quickly became owners, especially in the Casbah, by purchasing properties from the estate or directly from local inhabitants. Among them was Philippe Joseph Picon. Sardinian in origin, this producer of liqueurs in Marseille moved into the real-estate business upon his arrival in Algiers. The Governing Council’s records reveal its strong involvement in the sale of government buildings by public auction as early as 1836. From 1850 to 1870, he was the manager of the Société Immobilière du Département d’Alger.

The newly conquered city also attracted rich investors—usually aristocrats—many of whom were represented by local agents in Algiers. This allowed them to earn interest on their capital without having to maintain their buildings. ¹⁶ Among these “yellow-gloved colonists” ¹⁷ were La Tour du Pin and Augustin de Vialar. But if the latter quickly set out to conquer Mitidja, he nevertheless remained the owner of many buildings in the Casbah, particularly one in the area of rue Bab Azoun.

The European population settled primarily in the lower Casbah, the part of the city closest to the port, constituted by the least steep slopes. This fact is now well known, widely reported by sources ¹⁸ and primary research. ¹⁹ While topographical and security-related conditions are the main factors, a recent study also links this trend to urban development. ²⁰ Thus, European owners would mainly locate themselves along the transformed streets in both the upper and lower parts of the Casbah. Their increased presence in the lower part was a consequence of the importance of the urban development that had been carried out there. The residential districts located in the upper part of the old city have remained occupied mainly by the indigenous population due, according to this study, to the scarcity of urban reorganization.

Algiers differed from other cities in the French colonial empire, where new cities or new districts were established ex nihilo. ²¹ Moreover, due to the advent of French colonization, it is located outside the process of urban modernization of the Maghreb cities, initiated between 1830 and 1880 by the Sublime Porte (Ottoman Empire Government). ²²

The urban reorganization of the Casbah of Algiers is rather similar to the transformations of French medieval cities undertaken since the end of the eighteenth century. They comply with the principles of regularization urbanism, which consists of bringing an urban fabric into conformity with legal and regulatory provisions and which aims to improve preindustrial cities following the hygiene, traffic, and aesthetics triad.

This urban model was imposed in Algiers by a restricted occupation that was limited to the city’s intramuros space. The first projects undertaken in the aftermath of the conquest were done to meet military traffic and security requirements as a matter of priority. Thus, parts of shops, tiled benches, awnings, and other external balustrades that encroached on the public street were removed. ²³ A parade ground, named Place du Gouvernement in 1832 (now Place des Martyrs), was also cleared for use not only for troop reviews but also for parking cars and holding markets. ²⁴ The declaration of public utility was sufficient to expropriate and start this work; only formalities for compensating dispossessed owners were accepted. ²⁵ In addition, the use of expropriation was minimal, as a large part of the demolished buildings were state property or part of the alienated property belonging to Muslim corporations. ²⁶

Moreover, behind this public utility purpose was a more ambitious undertaking, namely, “the city’s embellishment and sanitation.” ²⁷ Thus, throughout the nineteenth century, the precolonial city underwent more substantial transformations: alignment and widening of its streets, opening of new streets punctuated by squares, and creation of boulevards at the site of its enclosure. The result was the creation of a transitional urban fabric in the lower Casbah, surrounded by new districts built in its southern and northern suburbs. The undertaking of this urban development required expropriation. This means of land mobilization by the municipality ²⁸ was governed since 1833 by numerous legal texts, ²⁹ some of which contain specific provisions for urban intervention (Figure 1).

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Figure 1.

The Casbah of Algiers in the 1860s with indication of all colonial transformations mentioned in the text. According to the general map of the city of Algiers, 1865, Jatissier Editeur, BNF, maps, and plans department.

The Precolonial Street Network Rectification and the First Regulation on Expropriation

The decision of October 17, 1833, was the first legal order regarding expropriation. It was promulgated before the application of French legislation in Algiers was even an option. ³⁰ First, its goal was to facilitate the removal of buildings that were an obstacle to alignment and enlargement operations or that threatened public safety. In addition, other decisions designating buildings for partial or total demolition and referring to this first legal provision followed one another after its promulgation. ³¹

Contrary to the French regulations to which it refers, ³² this decision did not limit expropriation to land useful for the new street. ³³ Indeed, it imposed the total dispossession of all the buildings partially affected by the new alignments and therefore did not contain any provisions concerning concessions. On February 27, 1834, the Governing Council admitted that it had been enacted in a hurry. In a long report, ³⁴ the civil intendant explained in detail the reasons in this regard: substantial demolitions affecting rue Bab el Oued and rue de la Marine in particular were decided on October 3, 1833, within the framework of street enlarging projects, which were not regulated by the authorities. In addition, the majority of the buildings that were affected by the expropriation as a result of these projects were public property rented to private parties. There was therefore no need to worry about the few expropriated owners and their possible desire to keep those parts of their properties that would not be transferred to the public domain. The same report also reveals the Government’s intention to requisition portions of land on all the expropriated sites for the needs of the various services. However, the overrun of the budget allocated to the work on these two streets no longer made it possible to meet the resulting compensation and to consider a full and systematic expropriation for future work.

As a consequence, the general regulations on the administration of buildings, established by the decision of April 2, 1834, finally allowed private owners to keep the portions of land that were outside the alignments. ³⁵ However, this was only possible if the available portion of building area would be large enough to allow a new construction to be built independently of the neighboring buildings. Expropriation was imposed in the event that the remaining plot after the new alignments could only be built by combining it with the adjacent properties. ³⁶

This decision thus complements the first regulation on expropriation. It fills the gaps and the legal void surrounding the fate of the expropriated property. It also discusses the sale and concession of plots resulting from expropriation operations for public utility. Therefore, it gave owners the choice to keep or abandon the remaining portion of their expropriated buildings and gave them preference over the bidder for the acquisition of the lands put up for auction.

These first expropriation measures made it possible to continue improving the precolonial streets, including the city’s three main streets, which were classified as such in 1833. ³⁷ Chief Engineer Victor Poirel ³⁸ pointed out that, along rue Bab Azoun and rue de la Marine, the buildings concerned were essentially shops with only a ground floor and about ten square meters in area, ³⁹ most of which were located on the ground floor of public buildings. ⁴⁰ René Lespès had noted in this regard that in 1839, when the widening of these streets was almost completed, the rue Bab el Oued work was delayed due to the hostility of many residents to the demolition. ⁴¹

The Opening of New Streets and the Second Regulation on Expropriation

During the first two decades of French occupation, nearly every urban development project involved expropriation. From 1846 onward, this level of systematic expropriation was no longer tenable due to the economic crises affecting the construction sector. For example, the nonuse of these forced acquisitions was the decisive argument in favor of the creation of rue de la Lyre. In the session of the Governing Council during which the latter’s plan was discussed, the uselessness of the expropriation was justified by the shoreline owners’ interest in this work, which would undeniably push them to ask for the alignment to rebuild along the new street. ⁴²

The discussions around the expenses to be incurred as a result of the creation of rue de la Lyre could also be justified by the fact that this is the first operation of such importance. Indeed, due to its straight layout and its role as a subsidiary route and despite the restriction of its width to eight meters, it represents an opening of new route through existing urban fabric. This type of intervention, known as “percement,” was common during the transformation of Paris in the Second Empire.

Saving money on expenses for this project is also reflected in the positioning of the street, which follows, at least partially, the layout of an old street of the same name. The reasons for this choice were twofold: first, the will to extend and improve an old street considered to be a major traffic artery, thanks to its central location, and second, for topographical reasons (horizontality of its ground and its proximity to other streets made it easy to connect to them). ⁴³ This logic of opening of streets was used simultaneously in mainland France. While it saved the authorities money in the process, ⁴⁴ it also imposed negotiations with private parties (Figure 2).

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Figure 2.

Layout of rue de la Lyre. According to the general plan of the city of Algiers, 1846, Dubos Frères and Marest Editeur, BNF, maps, and plans department.

Between the date of his plan’s approval on September 17, 1846, and 1852, no expropriation for public utility purposes was reported as part of rue de la Lyre’s opening. The administration hoped that, because of the economic crisis that weighed on the execution of the work, ⁴⁵ the demolition of the houses would be requested by the owners themselves, as was the case for a section of the northern end, between rue Porte Neuve (now rue Rabah Riah) and the square in front of the cathedral. ⁴⁶ As a result, work progressed according to the amicable acquisition of properties for the benefit of the administration of the estates. ⁴⁷

It was not until 1852 that the Governing Council discussed and approved the use of expropriation for this purpose. An initial series of nine buildings was designated for expropriation/demolition on February 9, 1852, to allow for the opening of the section between Place du Gouvernement and rue Porte Neuve to be completed. ⁴⁸ A second expropriation campaign decided on August 29, 1853, involving eighteen buildings, with the objective of the continued opening of the area between rue Médée (now rue Ahmed Allam) and the former defensive walls of the Casbah. ⁴⁹

It is important to mention that the declaration of public utility for expropriation was preceded by preliminary instructions imposed by the Royal Decree of October 1, 1844. These administrative measures, which were added to the long concession procedures, are not the only ones responsible for the failure to complete the rue de la Lyre’s opening project more than a decade after its adoption. The finalization of its work and the reconstruction of its frontages were shelved in 1858 due to a private project of interest to the municipality of Algiers, which prompted the latter to suspend the issuance of alignment permits to owners. This was the project led by a merchant, Stucklé, and an architect, De Redon, who proposed, at the beginning of the opening of this street, to carry out the necessary leveling work before new buildings were erected. In return, they requested the exploitation of its surroundings constituted by the parcels of public land to install temporary shops or stores for their benefit. Baited by the success of this affair, the real-estate company Stucklè-De Redon considered making this concession permanent and even proposed to extend it to a depth of twenty-five meters on either side of rue de la Lyre. In return, he proposed to offer the municipality the construction of the entire street to complete its opening, as well as the payment of expropriations.

Such a large-scale construction project could not be carried out without the overhaul of the expropriation regulations. This is what this company tried to obtain by requesting the application in its favor of the decree of March 26, 1852, relating to the streets of Paris, which provided for more significant expropriations. However, the resistance of the shoreline owners prompted Stucklè-De Redon to abandon his project.

As a consequence, the rue de la Lyre situation reflects the need for new regulations on expropriation. The decree of August 26, 1859, was for Algiers what the decree of March 26, 1852, was for the city of Paris: a way to extend expropriation a little further beyond the right-of-way of the new street so as to allow the creation of wider intervention zones. It is noteworthy that this new law maintained the provision of the 1834 decision that gave owners the possibility of keeping the plots affected by the urban development when they made it possible to build new healthy buildings and imposed dispossession on them in the opposite case. It also authorized expropriation when preexisting side streets that had become useless after the opening of new streets were removed. In addition, it allowed for the annexation of adjacent buildings of residual land plots that did not allow salubrious buildings to be built. ⁵⁰

This new expropriation regime allowed Paris to considerably expand the development areas for the creation of new streets through existing quarters and to impose an architecture whose proportions were more in line with the new street network. ⁵¹ In the case of the Casbah of Algiers, the promulgation of the decision of August 26, 1859, did not, however, lead to a radical transformation of the urban fabric similar to those of the French capital under Prefect Haussmann. But it seems to have offered the opportunity to adopt more rectilinear layouts. This is, at least, the result of a comparison between the designed and built layout of rue Randon (now rues Amar Ali, Arbadji Abderrahmane, and Ben Chenneb). The first, shown on the 1865 plan, shows that urban voids had been taken into account, thus reducing expropriation areas. The resulting street, as represented on a plan from the beginning of the twentieth century, adopts a more rectilinear layout. This change can be attributed to the application of a provision from the 1859 decree which authorized expropriation in the case of the removal of side streets, thus allowing the intervention areas to be extended (Figure 3).

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Figure 3.

Projected and final layouts of rue Randon.

Public Land Plots Concession

The Estate Administration, which reserved the right to dispose of the plots along the new alignments, intended to take full advantage of them by auction sale. Moreover, the construction work on the new streets was often slow, forcing the administration to concede these state lands by mutual agreement.

These concessions were regularly discussed during the Governing Council meetings. Based on the arguments they provided to the benefit of the applicants, it is possible to distinguish between three common cases (Figure 4).

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Figure 4.

Precolonial constructions of rue de la Lyre. According to the alignment plan of the rue de la Lyre, 1853, ANOM, Aix-en-Provence.

First, there are the concession applications submitted by neighboring owners of residual plots that they were claiming to advance on the new alignments or by dispossessed owners claiming the remaining land from their former properties to rebuild them. ⁵² The Council often approved these requests to expedite construction. It justified its decision according to the disposition stated in article 20 of the decision of April 2, 1834, which allowed it to consider these public lands as property with little value, which could be either granted or rented. ⁵³

The second category of concession applications allowed the Estate Administration to use the plots as a means of compensating expropriated owners. Among these cases, the one concerning a landlord whose house was located at the corner of the rue Bab el Oued and the rue Philippe (now rue Bouras Mohamed) was demolished because of public safety. ⁵⁴ The owner requested the concession of the land that would allow him to rebuild his property according to the new alignments. He also requested the concession of another plot of land from a habous property ⁵⁵ that was enclosed in his property after the demolition of a neighboring house. The concession in return for an annual and perpetual annuity was thus granted to him by the Council to compensate for his losses.

The third category of current business concerned the granting of public lands by way of exchange for properties that were incorporated into the area of the street. These exchanges made it possible to create new streets in the absence of expropriation, as was the case at the beginning of rue de la Lyre’s opening project. ⁵⁶

Plot Remodeling and Its Consequences on Domestic Architecture

Intervention areas of varying extent were resulted from the urban interventions undertaken in the Casbah of Algiers:

It was in this urban context that European houses were constructed. They are collective dwellings, facing the street, elevated several floors, each of which houses one or more apartments. Due to the complexity of their plots, they are a perfect illustration of these colonial architectures illustrating domestication and hybridization phenomena. ⁵⁷

Allotment and Imported Model

In nineteenth-century France, the allotment operation consisted first in reorganizing the expropriated land. This step was followed by the design of a new plot plan and the sale of the plots, possibly by auction. ⁵⁸ One of the first operations of this kind undertaken in the Casbah of Algiers concerned the cleared land following the conquest for the creation of the parade ground. They were divided into several lots constituting five blocks in 1832. ⁵⁹ However, the latter were repeatedly revised because of the dominant military character of this square and the equipment it was to receive.

This first allotment operation led to the construction in 1837 of the first European houses to the north and south of the Place du Gouvernement. But it was not until the 1850s and 1860s that private contractors finally managed to overcome all the land bordering it to the west, following the demolition of the former Ottoman dignitaries’ palace (Palais de la Jenina), its outbuildings and the adjacent land invaded by wooden shops.

The large surface area of these lands allowed for the cutting of other blocks—seven in all. The alignments that define them were adopted by ministerial decision on the July 23, 1850. The lands were transferred by the municipality to the private contractor as payment, to be retained for the construction of the planned theater in the south part of the Casbah’s enclosure ⁶⁰ (Figure 1).

The allotment of Place du Gouvernement was completed in 1863 by the creation of a block of land given by the Engineering Department to the municipality of Algiers. It is the first block on boulevard de l’Impératrice (now boulevard Ernesto Che Guevara) whose construction work is being carried out by an English contractor named Sir Morton Péto. ⁶¹

The plot’s regular size and shape, as well as the economic factor, facilitated the construction of galleries. This typology, both architectural and urban, allowed owners to make their investment profitable and was an effective way for the municipality to organize (or rather reorganize) the retail trade in the lower Casbah. Indeed, in this part of the city, various precolonial commercial structures, such as souks and bazaars, were destroyed during the urban development. ⁶² As a result of the European population’s control, retail trade was not only integrated into the arcade galleries along the main streets, but also into the passages crossing the housing blocks.

Originating from private speculation, the passages also known as “bazaars” often occupied lots of lands acquired by wealthy investors. Several examples illustrate this typology, including the Passage Napoléon built by Louis Sarlin on one of blocks surrounding the Place du Gouvernement, ⁶³ as well as a concentration of this type of construction around the same square. The house of La Tour du Pin, built in 1837 during the first allotment operation, ⁶⁴ is the first prototype (Figure 5).

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Figure 5.

The allotment operations of the Place du Gouvernement and an example of the construction around this square. According to the plan of this square joined to the ministerial decision of June 23, 1850.

From Plot Reconstitution to Hybrid Architecture

Houses built along the rectified or newly opened streets were in most cases organized around a staircase giving access, on each level, to one or more dwellings. However, this typology, which characterizes metropolitan domestic architecture, had to be adapted to the shape and size of the plots. It was also necessary to take into account the absence of a rear facade. Indeed, it was necessary to systematically create courtyards or ventilation courtyards, allowing air circulation or the development of apartments at the bottom of the plot (Figure 6a and 6b).

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Figure 6.

Examples of European houses built on a recomposed plot: (a) Case of house with aeration courtyard; (b) Building with rear facade overlooking the patio of a precolonial building; (c) Realigned precolonial house.

But alignment and enlargement operations did not systematically lead to the construction of a new built front. The buildings that emerged during these urban developments have often been described as “plastered,” “encompassed,” or “reconstructed” ⁶⁵ proof of the remodeling and reconfiguration operations to which they have been subjected. This is the consequence of the almost systematic concession of the residual plots bordering the new alignments to owners of adjacent houses. Indeed, as soon as the expropriations were carried out, the resulting land after the demolitions and the deduction of the parts falling into the public street were claimed by the neighboring owners to extend their properties and move forward on the new street (Figure 6c).

The recovery of the residual plots made it possible in particular to graft the precolonial constructions with the arcade galleries imposed along the eight meters wide streets. ⁶⁶ It was also a way of avoiding the construction of new “closet” houses on the edge of the streets, without any depth. ⁶⁷ In addition to these extensions, there are also interior transformations resulting in a type of inherited courtyard building that testifies to the hybridization of the preexisting patio construction model. Within this model, the patio is the place around which daily life is organized. In European houses, it is reduced to a simple transition space, ensuring the distribution of apartments. ⁶⁸

Interior alterations followed the appropriation of the precolonial city by the new European population. Nabila Oulebsir describes this stage as a “manufactured nation that invents itself by creating and transforming spaces and places, and by fixing heritage references.” ⁶⁹ This is particularly a reference to the Greek–Roman heritage. For the scholarly milieu of the time, represented by Adrien Berbrugger (1801-1869), founder of the Algiers Library and Museum and the African Revue, the Roman past could “provide practical indications to the present.” ⁷⁰ In the field of architecture, through its patio, the so-called “Moorish house,” in the terminology of the time, was thus considered to be “the layer of the Roman house.” ⁷¹

These remarks are illustrative of a colonial ideology that, according to Rachid Ouahès, took the form of a “ritornello” ⁷² because it tended to give a certain legitimacy to the French presence, through the constant search in African soil for traces of this ancient civilization or the reference to its precepts during urban development. These ideas do not seem to have touched the sphere of European homeowners. Their preference for the transformation of precolonial buildings rather than for their demolition reflects concrete concerns, including the saving on construction costs, hence the multiplication of applications for the concession of residual plots submitted by neighboring owners.

The conservation of precolonial buildings also could be perceived as a recognition of the qualitative value of their spatial organization, the ability to assimilate the irregularity of the shape of the parcels thanks to the quadrangular shape of the patio, or even an adaptation to the Mediterranean climate. ⁷³ When these constructions were on the edge of the new alignments, their facades were rebuilt to comply with the street regulations, just like the new buildings. They were thus devoid of their cantilever-shaped elements and pierced with series of bays. As a consequence, the appearance reminds a common type of french facades from the 1840s/60s called “transparent facade [façade transparente]”. The latter is caracterized by the multiplication of windows to the detriment of the width of the trumeaux. ⁷⁴ As a result of this new layout, the external appearance of precolonial buildings differs little or not at all from that of high-rise buildings by removing the existing structures (Figure 7).

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Figure 7.

(a) Rue Bab Azoun; (b) Rue de la Lyre; (c) Precolonial houses of rue de la Casbah (now rue Prof. Mohamed Soualah and rue Sidi Driss Hamidouche) with realigned frontages.

Moreover, when it comes to urban blocks from a precolonial plot framework, the import of models, like the gallery, did not exclude their adaptation. This is the case, for example, of the Passage de la Flèche (now rue Abdelkader Boudissa), which was originally one of the precolonial alleys perpendicular to rue Bab Azoun. Its displacement of a few meters was approved in 1841. ⁷⁵ The absence at that time of complete expropriations made possible by the 1859 decree and the use of the concession of the remaining plots led to its maintenance to provide access to adjoining houses and shops (Figure 8).

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Figure 8.

Case of a gallery with an irregular layout.

Conclusion

Notwithstanding the differences in size, urban interventions undertaken in the Casbah of Algiers seem to reproduce the image of those that shaped French cities during the nineteenth century. They therefore imposed land control, which had to involve the creation of the public domain and the promulgation of legal texts such as expropriation regulations. However, the introduction of a new legislative framework inspired by that of the mainland France has not led to a planned use of urban space that would make it possible to improve the precolonial street network and undertake real-estate operations. The aims of the municipality were thus not very closely linked to real-estate interests: the administration was satisfied with solving traffic problems, leaving few places for contractors, which explains the rarity of allotment operations.

In addition, the response of individuals affected by urban development, particularly through requests for concessions and exchanges of properties, was a force that helped to shape urban projects. Although the decisions of the Governing Council were often in favor of the private interest in concession matters, this does not mean that it was a state policy in this sense, but rather a combination of circumstances: a need to quickly complete work to improve street network to facilitate traffic, a continuous search for ways to minimize the cost of these interventions, and a rejection by the owners of real-estate projects.

The case of rue de la Lyre demonstrates the importance of the 1859 regulations for urban redevelopment. In the absence of these regulations, the opening of this street appears to be a reflection of the alignment and widening of the former Ottoman streets: a fragmented operation depending on expropriation and concession requests and resulting from the interweaving of a multitude of actions.

Finally, the scarcity of allotment operations due to a recomposition of the plot has led to the development of a hybrid domestic architecture. While this article explains the conditions of its development, it also heralds its diversity and architectural richness, which futures researches should aim to study.