Essai de la stratification de la Citadelle d'Oran

Abstract

The citadel represents one of the oldest fortress of Oran, it figures without any doubt among the earliest military structures erected in Oran. The question of this citadel was rarely tackled by the previous studies, seeing ever. The Characteristics, defensive and palatial architectural of the Casbah's peculiarities differentiate it from other fortifications. The double role held this fortification as a complex and palatial defensive encourages us to want to understand what was the spatial and functional organization of this complex but also the specific characteristics of its residential architecture. The imposing character of its military architecture brings us to identify elements of its defensive device. It was equipped with palatial structures, during its occupation by the Spanish and the ottomans, organized around gardens and patios. During our research, we often had to deal with the lack of information and a few quantities of document sources in addition to the previous studies on what we had based as a starting point. However, the abundance of graphic documentation about the Casbah from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century preserved in various archival funds especially in Spain and France. This late led us to base essentially our research on the in-depth reading process of these graphic sources. These plans and maps made in the vast majority by military engineers, they are susceptible to give more detailed information about spatial and architectural characteristics of the defensive system, as well as for the intramural buildings of the citadel during each period of occupation. The Citadel is a witness of a complex historical experience by an authenticity shaped by multiples Centuries of stratification because of the repetitive changes and readjustments of the spatial and architectural configuration by the different occupants- Arabic Islamic, Spanish, ottomans and French-. The graphical documents confirm the existence of several formation phases of the defensive system and residential structures that the Citadel contains. The overlapping plans and the state operated supported by the surveys states in situ location records permits to identify the functional and structural mutations that the Casbah suffered throughout its several occupations. The identification of the significant phases of stratification in the Citadel is an important part of our search results.