Algiers the White: Haussmann Heritage and Youth (2/3)

Par Gabriel Goldberg 27 April 2026 2 min read

After the protective intimacy of the Kasbah, I had to face the rest of the city. I took very few photos during this trip. It was an almost visceral choice: I wanted to feed myself through my eyes, to live in the present rather than freeze it behind a screen. In any case, photographs never do justice to Algiers. They capture neither the soundscape, nor that very particular light, nor the smells of the street. Algiers “the White” ( El Bahdja ) won’t let itself be tamed at a single glance. It is a spectacular urban amphitheatre, a cascade of pale buildings tumbling down the hills into the Mediterranean. A Haussmann-era façade in Algiers, drenched in Mediterranean light. The Haussmann Trompe-l’œil and the Memory of Walls Walking down the great central avenues stirs an unsettling feeling of familiarity. The wide boulevards, the richly ornamented Haussmann façades, the towering palm trees lining the avenues… One could believe oneself in Nice or anywhere in the South of France. The setting is colonial, a direct legacy of the French presence, but the soul is unmistakably Algerian. The majestic arcades of central Algiers — an architectural inheritance now fully Algerian. These buildings now hold all the density of Algerian life. It is an urban landscape where the histories of French settlers, Arabs and Amazigh (Berbers) intertwine. Old cars from the 1940s, 50s and 60s still roam the streets, adding a deliciously anachronistic touch to the picture. Algiers hides neither its wrinkles…