MECHOUAR

Built in 1145 on the site of the tent of King Youssef Ibn Tachfine, the old citadel was originally intended to house the Almoravid and then Almohad governors. It became a palace when the Zianid king decided to leave Qasr El-Qadim for this rectangle of 200 m by 150 m. Embellished during the following centuries, the Mechouar owes its name to the room where the ministers met around the king of Tlemcen. The mosque was built around 1317 by the Zianid prince Abou Hammou Moussa I, the external walls were built by Abou Abbès Ahmed and it is during the reign of Abou Hammou II that the Mechouar knew the most sumptuous court life.

During the Ottoman period, inaugurated by the occupation of the brothers Aroudj and Kheireddine "Barberousse", the Mechouar was degraded and some of its buildings were removed, in particular during the revolt of Tlemcénienne against the bey Hassan in 1670. After the Treaty of Tafna (1837), the troops of Abdelkader, then governor of western Algeria, occupied the fortress for four years before the French took it over and made some modifications, transforming it into a barracks with a military hospital.

Closed to the public until 1986 because it belonged to the army, which had opened the School of Revolutionary Cadets there - read about it in L'Ecrivain by Yasmina Khadra -, the Mechouar is gradually finding its place in the center of Tlemcen. Today, the walls, restored several times, protect a vast esplanade surrounded by administrative buildings.