Palace of the Dey of Algiers

This palace, the residence of the last deys of Algiers, was one of the most prestigious architectural complexes in the Medina during the Ottoman era. It was the largest residential building in the citadel, which also housed two mosques, a second palace and a powder magazine for saltpetre.The palace underwent a number of transformations over the centuries. Erected in the north-eastern corner of the fortress during the second half of the sixteenth century, it maintained an essentially military role during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, although it did house the assemblies of the Dīwān. It was defended by a garrison of Janissaries. In the early nineteenth century Dey ‘Alī Khōja, fearing popular rioting, had his palace built there; this was the beginning of a series of transformations.

There are two main entrances. One leads through a vaulted doorway into the courtyard, the other, on the street side, leads through a chicane entrance that protects the privacy of the household; the chicane system, which goes back to ancient times, can be observed in both civil and military architecture. The chicane entrance opened into a central hall graced with a marble fountain and a semicircular dome whose walls were decorated in ceramic and paint.

Four three-storey wings encircle a large rectangular courtyard, the core of the palace, which contains the Dey’s apartments along with a small, profusely decorated wooden house called the “pavillon du coup d’éventail” (house of the slap of the fan), kitchens, a hammam, and a music room whose back wall is decorated by an arcature flanked by colonnettes. The harem is in the north-west wing of the palace; a separate area for women only, it is laid out around a patio built above the Dîwân and the treasury. The ceramic tiles that cover the palace walls feature mostly floral and vegetal compositions. Inspired by Italian art, they were imported from Europe and Tunisia. Most of the tiles found here are Tunisian, which is not surprising since maritime commercial relations with Tunis were easy and more or less uninterrupted. The others are from Italy, Holland and Spain.

The inspiration for the decorations used on Tunisian ceramics should be sought in Andalusian, Turkish and Persian, or else European, decorative repertoires. The technique owes a great deal to Andalusian craftsmen whose workshops were set up in the Qallaline quarter. Persian, Anatolian and Syrian influences mingled with the Andalusian elements after 80,000 Muslims were driven out of Spain by Philip II in 1610 and fled to Tunisia. We have no reliable information from the Ottoman era other than the site of Tlemcen, which may have produced the small stamped pavement tiles with brown, green and yellow glaze and several ceramic slabs with geometric interlacing patterns that are also found in Algerian homes and mosques.

The palace also bears witness to Algeria’s contemporary history. It was under its two colonnades that in 1827 Dey Hussein famously slapped the French consul with his fan, an affair that served as the pretext for the ensuing military expedition. During the occupation General De Bourmont altered the palace’s structure to make it into his residence. The fortress was bisected by a road and cut off from the other buildings adjoining it.