MECHOUAR

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

During the Ottoman period, inaugurated by the occupation of the brothers Aroudj and Kheireddine "Barberousse", the Mechouar fell into disrepair and some of its buildings were removed, notably during the Tlemcénienne revolt 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 a few 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 École des Cadets de la Révolution (see Yasmina Khadra's L'Écrivain ), the Mechouar is gradually regaining its place in the center of Tlemcen. Today, the multiply restored walls protect a vast esplanade surrounded by administrative buildings.