NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FOLK ARTS AND TRADITIONS
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Palace converted into a museum with a fine collection of carpets, pottery, ceramics, brassware, jewelry..
Built on the site of an ancient zawiya around 1570 by Yahia Raïs, an officer in the Algerian fleet, this palace is also known as Dar Bacri. For a number of years, the property was the home of Michel Cohen Bacri, a wealthy wheat merchant known for his involvement in the dispute over France's debt to Algeria, which led to the "coup de l'éventail", the pretext for the French takeover of Algiers.
The palace was purchased in 1789 by Hassan El Khaznadji, then finance minister to dey Mohamed Ben Othman (1766-1791). The minister, future dey Hassan Pacha, restored and enlarged the palace as a gift for his daughter Khadaoudj, who was said to have become blind from admiring her beauty in the mirror. The dey Hassan Pacha's grandchildren inherited the palace before the French requisitioned it in 1830 to house Algiers' first town hall, and later the Hôtel du procureur général and the Hôtel du premier président de la cour d'appel. The palace underwent a number of transformations.
In 1947, the building was given over to the technical department of Algerian Crafts, and in 1987 became the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions.
The museum boasts a fine collection of carpets, pottery, ceramics, copperware and Berber jewelry... The exhibition is interesting, and provides an opportunity to discover a typical Casbah dwelling. One of the upstairs rooms is decorated with magnificent Delft tiles.
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