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Symbolism and memory in architecture: Algerian anti-colonial resistance and the Algiers Casbah

The original medina of Algiers – currently called the Algiers Casbah – constituted an integral part of the indigenous struggle for national independence. Constantly subject to French colonialist propaganda, it suffered throughout the colonial era (1830–1962) brutal destruction, negative representation, and ideological marginalisation. Yet it emerged after Algerian revolutionary war against French occupation (1954–1962) as an icon of people's solidarity, a physical landmark of Algerian identity, and an emblem of national memory. This paper investigates the historical formation of these symbolic values, and examines how the built environment gains its cultural meaning from political struggles. It also highlights the way that such meaning becomes an immaterial tool for the instrumentalisation of the medina area in the affirmation of national identity in the post-independence era. Using a historical approach, which discusses the emergence of Algerian nationalism and the later famous battle of Algiers in the 1950s, this paper argues that the psychological and cultural implications of Algerian anti-colonial resistance contributed heavily to the way that people today perceive the emblematic importance of the Ottoman medina of Algiers.