KETCHAOUA MOSQUE
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After lengthy renovations, it reopened its doors at the end of 2018 and is well worth a visit. The Ketchaoua mosque was built in 1612 on the site of ancient Roman baths unearthed in 1844. It was located in the heart of the lively lower Casbah district, which revolved around the old Palais de la Djenina, the souks and the Badestan, the slave market. Restored under the dey Hassan Pacha in 1795, it was built in the Byzantine style. Conferred to Muslim worship by the French in 1832, the mosque became a church and underwent major alterations between 1842 and 1890. Consecrated as Saint-Philippe cathedral in 1860, the building was stripped of its minaret, flanked by two bell towers and an imposing staircase leading to an arcaded portico, while the façade adopted a neo-Byzantine and neo-Moorish style during work carried out by the diocesan architect and Algeria's historic monuments, Albert Ballu. The cathedral celebrated the funeral of composer and musician Camille Saint-Saëns in 1921. The interior of the building, which has been used for Muslim worship since 1962, features elements of the original mosque: marble minbar and columns, ablutions basin... The mosque's old carved wooden door, a 17th-century work attributed to Ahmed Ben Lablatchi, is preserved in the Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Arts. One of the former cathedral's bells, too heavy to be removed from the building, can be seen in one of the bell towers at the rear of the mosque.
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