Oran

Oran, city, northwestern Algeria. It lies along an open bay on the Mediterranean Sea coast, about midway between Tangier, Morocco, and Algiers, at the point where Algeria is closest to Spain. With the adjacent city of Mers el-Kebir, a fishing centre at the western end of the bay, Oran is the country’s second largest port, after Algiers. Pop. (2005) 724,000; (2010 est.) 770,000.

History

Oran was founded at the beginning of the 10th century by Andalusian merchants as a base for trade with the North African hinterland, and it developed commercially owing to its sea connections with Europe. It became the port for the North African kingdom of Tlemcen in 1437 and also was an entrepôt for trade with the Sudan. In 1492 and 1502 Oran received colonies of Spanish Muslims (Moors) fleeing from forcible conversion to Christianity. Thereafter, its prosperity began to decline, and, with Mers el-Kebir, it became a centre for pirates. It was occupied by the Spanish in 1509. For the next two centuries, Oran was contested by the various Mediterranean powers until it fell to the Turks in 1708. The constant raids of pirates based at Mers el-Kebir prompted Spain to retake Oran in 1732. Devastated by an earthquake in 1790, the town was evacuated and returned (in 1792) to the Turks, who settled a Jewish community there. Oran was occupied in 1831 by the French, who developed it as a modern port and turned Mers el-Kebir into a major naval base.

In June 1940 during World War II, at the time of the Franco-German armistice, a major part of the French fleet took refuge at Mers el-Kebir. On July 3 a British naval force sank or damaged most of the French ships in order to keep them from falling into German hands. Oran was one of the principal objectives in the Allied landings in North Africa and was captured by U.S. forces on November 10, 1942. Oran had a higher proportion of European inhabitants than any other North African city, and much strife occurred between the French and the Arab Muslims at the time of Algerian independence in 1962. Most of the Europeans subsequently left, and Oran’s naval functions gradually lapsed in favour of commercial ones.

The contemporary city

Modern Oran is divided into a waterfront and old and new city sections occupying terraces above it that were formerly divided by a ravine (now built over). The old Spanish-Arab-Turkish city, called La Blanca, lies west of the ravine on a hill. The newer city, called La Ville Nouvelle and built by the French after 1831, occupies the terraces on the east bank of the ravine. La Blanca is crowned by the Turkish citadel of Santa Cruz, which was subsequently modified by the Spanish and the French. The Spanish quarter, with its narrow streets, contains the former Cathedral of Saint-Louis (rebuilt by the French in 1838), the Porte de Canastel (reconstructed in 1734), and the fountain in the Place Emerat (1789). In the Turkish part of the old town is the Great Mosque, built in 1796 with money obtained by ransoming Spanish captives. To the east lies the Château Neuf, former residence of the beys of Oran and later a French army headquarters. Near the Casbah, which surrounds the old Spanish castle, are the mosque of Sīdī el-Haowri, a 15th-century scholar and monk; the former barracks of the Janissaries; and the harem of the beys. The former French sector now spreads across the ravine and far outside the second city wall (built 1866; now largely demolished). This sector contains government and commercial offices and many mid-rise apartment buildings.

The University of Oran was founded in 1965, and the University of Science and Technology of Oran was founded in 1975. Oran’s other institutions include the Municipal Museum (Roman and Punic exhibits), the Museum of Tlemcen (Islamic art), and the Aubert Library. The city is the setting for the French writer Albert Camus’s novel La Peste (1947; The Plague).

Oran’s artificial harbour was greatly enlarged after 1848 and has a jetty more than 8,800 feet (2,700 metres) long. The city is connected by rail to Algiers, Morocco, and Béchar, and its international airport lies beyond the village of El-Senia. The industrial part of Oran, in the outlying south-southeastern districts, contains hundreds of small food-processing and diversified manufacturing plants. The port’s principal exports are wine, cereals, vegetables, and fruits.