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~-.Following t he end of t he Algerian civil war, the national administration for protected cultural sites undertook
a few limited projects, including the gradual return of the 17th-century Ketchaoua Mosque to its
former glory (below), a project which has been under way since 2008 (above)for its bright-eyed young people, even before suffer from severe neglect and deterioration.
the recent popular uprising brought a new Rising inflation in the 1980s halted most
order of hopefulness about Algeria's future. ' " government-run revitalisation projects.
But, while the introduction of tourism Then, in 1991, Algeria recognised the Casbah
and inflationary real estate presents risks of as a national heritage site and UNESCO
displacement and demographic change, t he began to provide planning and technical
absence of economic incentives has constituted expertise for preservation: one rare success
a major impediment to preservation. The ·was the Centre of Arts and Culture in the
question for the government, building owners P alais des Ra'is, but a decade of civil war
and residents may be how to inject financing between Islamists and the FLN then
and a vibrant economic life into this followed, leading to further destruction.
particular context, with the goal of not only erE DEs ARTs PHoroMECANrauEs By 2003, the civil war had ended and the
preserving the Casbah's buildings but also sustajnjng the national admjnistration for protected cultural sites was established,
exceptional social capital and preventing displacement of the 60,000 an agency dedicated to safeguarding the Casbah that developed a
residents living precariously inside its collapsing structures. coordinated p lan for the preservation and restoration of buildings in
The insular character of the Algerian economy, managed since 2012. But the challenging conditions and administrative problems
independence in 1962 by the governing National Liberation Front remain epic and unresolved. Among these are questions of private
(FL~T) party and a shadowy group of military and intelligence chiefs property: renovation is complicated by a lack of clear title to land
known as 'the power', has not helped the process of restoring the that, over t jme, could be split among hundreds of descendants.
Casbah's historic structures. Dozens of 17 th- and 1 8th-century Countless owners abandoned family homes and vacant buildings
mosques, Ottoman palaces, religious schools and places of prayer were often taken over by squatters; encouraged by a 20-year-old