SACRÉ-CŒUR CATHEDRAL (MUNICIPAL LIBRARY)

This was the city's second cathedral during the French period, rebuilt in 1831 by the French on the remains of an earlier Spanish church built in 1509, but which had been largely destroyed by the earthquake of 1790. Construction began on April 20, 1903 and was completed on February 9, 1913. It was consecrated on April 9, 1930. Designed in a Romanesque-Byzantine style by architect Albert Ballu, the work was carried out by the construction company of brothers Auguste and Gustave Perret. The Cathedral Crypt was completed in 1906 (now a media library), and the Cavaillé-Coll-Mutin organ was inaugurated on February 3, 1918. The cathedral became a regional library in 1984, then a municipal library in 1996. This change of status was made possible by Monseigneur Claverie, Bishop of Oran, who entrusted the Sacré-Coeur cathedral to the commune in 1983. At the top of a vast staircase, the porch is dominated by a pediment decorated with delicate mosaics of blue and off-white motifs enhanced with gold. The façade is flanked by two square brick bell towers, topped by a stone cross that is still in place. In the nave, three domes precede the choir, which is housed under a large dome. The forecourt was once adorned with an equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, who gave her name to the square lined with thickly shaded ficus and palm trees.