From the Great Synagogue of Algiers to Jamma Lihoud, Architectural Monography of a Centuries-Old Building

Abstract

Abstract This article proposes a monographic study of the great synagogue of Algiers. An important architectural and symbolic construction, which is not only representative of the changes experienced by the Jewish community and their places of worship after 1830, but also of the contradictions of the colonial administration toward them. The monumental character, the use of many elements of the local architecture, and the Moorish style, have made of it a singular building in this middle of the Algerian nineteenth century imbued with the Parisian inspiration on architecture. Designed in an Arabian style, on a plan close to the plan of the traditional North African synagogues, the building was converted into a mosque after independence, without major consequences on its formal appearance. The communication proposes a detailed analysis of the spatial context, of this conversion.