Chief postal office, Algiers
Opened 1910
Renewed 2018
Of all the architecture in Algerian cities the NEO-Moorish style, developed during French colonisation, stood out. Buildings in this style decorated the Algerian cities, giving them a diversity and an artistic richness. With his new policy, Emperor Napoleon III (r1852-70) invited civilians and locals to share power with the military, as part of his Arab Kingdom Policy.
The emergence of a neo-Moorish style in Algeria thrived in mixed conditions: political, social, economic. In reality the Kingdom Policy was to win the Arabs’ sympathy by positive benefits and to attract new settlers with real prosperity. This whole colonisation enterprise was presented as a civilising mission of Algerians. The decision to maintain the French presence in Algeria, and its transition to a settlement planned for total territorial occupation, required civil buildings.
Neo-Moorish style was popularised in Algiers in 1903 when Frenchman Charles Jonnart became Gov General. New services quickly emerged: train station, post office, town hall etc. The Koranic School in Algeria’s Lower Casbah was built in the neo-Moorish style. Intended for the higher education of young locals, this Madrassa was inaugurated in Oct 1904 by Minister of Public Instruction & Fine Arts.
No service was more important than the French Postal Service! This French neo-Moorish style was important for Jonnart; the success of French colonisation depended on a cultural and religious compromise with the locals. In order to win them over, Jonnart requested a new style that re-created an Arab tradition and a new relationship between modern services and traditional architecture.
The style showed its debt to Arab-Andalusian architecture: sophisticated neo-Moorish arches, domes, chiselled stucco, massive carved doors, ornate mosaics and Koranic inscriptions. Calligraphy used the texts of inscriptions whose ornamental letters intertwined with the arabesques! The entrance to the building was not on one level but at the top of a wide amber-coloured marble staircase giving access to the fore-court which overlooked 3 monumental doors carved in precious wood.
Algerian Henri Klein (1864-1939) was the founder of the Committee of Old Algiers in 1905, an association that worked for the protection of the architectural and urban heritage via historical research. The timing was right for these historians, archaeologists and artists.
The new Anglican church in Upper Mustapha, completed in 1909, made it possible to demolish the old small Anglican church with its Anglo-Saxon style and stained glass windows. Instead, a large 5-storey building was built for Algiers Central Post Office, located on the Ras Taffoura inlet. Dedicated to post, telegraph and telephone, the building was designed by French architects Jules Voinot and Marius Toudoire, and finished by 1910. It was Algeria's largest post office building, used by an average of 9,000 users/day.
Architects Voinot and Tondoire designed the main facade adorned with 3 loops, and the upper gallery with twinned columns, surmounted by a crenellated parapet. Note the perfect symmetry of the main facade and the symmetrical organisation of the internal spaces, just like classical European architecture. Atop the Grande Poste, a metal balustrade adorned with geometric patterns and underlined its entire length by bands of green earthenware presenting in Arabic the names of the main cities of Algeria. An Andalusian cornice made up of green, round and glazed tiles was placed on wooden corbels.
Construction ended 3 years later after builders and architects coordinated on the building’s courtyards, columns and ceilings, decorating them with Arab and Andalusian decoration. The 3 forms of decoration of Arab-Muslim architecture were geometry, script and vegetation.
Inside the Grand Post Office in Algiers
Outside the dome was divided at regular intervals by protruding ribs, a form that was common in the Byzantine era. The dome covered the central room, designed on an octagonal plan. The radiating geometric interlacing decoration was a very refined Andalusian ornamentation a la Alhambra.
To access the Central Post Office, the visitor climbed up the stone staircase to the building, taking in the high ceiling. The glass and wooden windows were masterful. Inside the building, the impression came from the charm of the decor, and from its sheer scale. The ceiling of the main room was an architectural charm.
To access the Central Post Office, the visitor climbed up the stone staircase to the building, taking in the high ceiling. The glass and wooden windows were masterful. Inside the building, the impression came from the charm of the decor, and from its sheer scale. The ceiling of the main room was an architectural charm.
**
After WW2, colonialism was no longer acceptable. But France refused to give up Algeria. The French forces waged the bloody and brutal Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) hoping to hold on to Algeria. And despite terrorist acts by French Algerians opposed to independence and an attempted coup in France by elements of the French army, the Algerian Independence Agreement was signed in 1962.
When the original building was in a dreadful state, it no longer housed the postal services; parts had been damaged by water, rats were everywhere and the postal employees had moved to other premises. In 2014, they announced the building was to become the Museum for the History of Post & Telecommunications by the Republic’s President; the Director of Algérie Poste recorded the vast investment in 2015; and the building was closed in June 2017.
The government turned Grande Poste into a Museum that opened in 2018, a unique architectural treasure. Visitors discovered the history of the post and telecommunications in a building that synthesised Moorish and neo-classical styles. 60 years after independence, the Museum has remained the most important postal facility of Algeria. La Grande-Poste represented to Algiers what the Leaning Tower was to Pisa!
The government turned Grande Poste into a Museum that opened in 2018, a unique architectural treasure. Visitors discovered the history of the post and telecommunications in a building that synthesised Moorish and neo-classical styles. 60 years after independence, the Museum has remained the most important postal facility of Algeria. La Grande-Poste represented to Algiers what the Leaning Tower was to Pisa!
The ceiling of the main room was an architectural charm
Ornamental letters intertwined with the arabesques as wall decoration
wooden decorations that are set in the glass windows
above a monumental door
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12 comments:
Why did the French insist on staying in Algeria, even though they had a horrid battle on their hands.
I suppose it goes for many cities around the world but as so many grand buildings, the streets on which they were built were mostly disgustingly dirty and unmade. Thanks for showing us some of the Algerian grandeur. From memory of history, the French stayed just a bit too long.
Deb
it is such an interesting question - why all the other nations were withdrawing from their distant colonies, either happily or not, while France had no intention of leaving Algeria. At the turn of the century, I can understand that French nationalism and booming markets would make Algeria very valuable. But after WW2, the Algerian War of Independence (1954–62) was surely too long, too expensive and too death-filled for the French to continue.
Clearly Algeria had a huge French population, and France felt they had to protect them.
Andrew
France was so proud of its cultural and economic authority during its colonial age, all the existing cultural, social and economic facilities were rebuilt and made gorgeous. Algeria was the best symbol of France’s colonial empire, so we can expect that the best architects were brought in. Algerian grandeur actually reflected the establishment of French supremacy over Algeria.
"This whole colonisation enterprise by France was presented as a civilising mission of Algerians". I hope nobody would believe or express racist thinking now.
Joe
In the early decades of French colonialism, we would have heard that many times :( But in the C20th, Jonnart requested a new style that re-created an Arab tradition and a new relationship with modern services. That doesn't sound like he thought the Algerians were primitives.
Neither did Le Corbusier, France's best town planner/architect. In Algiers for the centennial celebration of French rule in 1931, Le Corbusier saw as an opportunity to offer the French colony a bold plan, raising Algiers to an international city. He reported that because colonisation was over, Algiers was destined to become the world capital of Africa.
Hi Hels - it's good to know they've restored the building ... incredible design and architecture - I've never been, but would love to visit Algeria ... now, not so sure ... but I can dream. Cheers Hilary
I would never have guessed that that building was the post office. So pleased it has been saved. I would love to see it. Maybe one day.
Hilary
My goal was to visit every Mediterranean country, starting in Spain, around Lebanon and Israel, and all the way across North Africa. What a shame that this grand plan ended in Egypt (which was terrific, by the way).
Fun60
the important civil buildings had to be functional, dominant and very attractive. And in 1910, this post office certainly was. Thankfully when it was no longer at all attractive, heaps of money was spent making it into the splendid Museum For the History of Post & Telecommunications.
That is not a bad Central Post Office! It is extraordinary!
Handmade
I loved that the French colonisers popularised the stunning Neo-Moorish style in Algiers, early in the century. They must have spent a fortune on a train station, town hall, the quality educational facilities and the post office in particular. Now I assume the post office isn't as important as it was in the pre-WW1 era, so we are very fortunate that the building has been renovated and preserved as a Museum.
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