PLACE DU 1ER-NOVEMBER - TOWN HALL AND THEATRE

A replica of the Place du Théâtre National in Algiers, it was originally intended for military demonstrations that could take place outside the walls of the old city. In the 1860s, everything was sold there. In the center of the square lined with ficus and palm trees, a stele bearing the effigy of Emir Abdelkader is topped by a winged Victory sculpted by Aimé-Jules Dalou. Originally, this monument celebrated the memory of the "braves" who fell during the battle of Sidi-Brahim (1845) against the troops of Emir Abdelkader. It was only after independence that the bas-relief of Emir Abdelkader who had won this battle was added.

On the south side, the town hall, now the headquarters of the APC, equivalent to the municipality, was built between 1882 and 1886. Its main façade is marked by a monumental staircase guarded by two bronze lions, the work of a student of Rodin, a certain Auguste Cain, whose name and sculpted lions inspired a text by Albert Camus in Le Minotaure ou la halte d'Oran.

Inside, a magnificent staircase of marble and red onyx serves the second floor and a beautiful glass roof has been restored.

On the west side of the square, the Oran theater, Italian style and built in 1907.

The theater now bears the name of Abdelkader Alloula, the first Algerian playwright to have written in dialectal Arabic at a time when the government swore by classical Arabic, he was unfortunately murdered during the black decade on March 10, 1994.