From the gate to the gateway : the impact of colonial intervention upon the entries of the city of Constantine

Abstract EN

The gates of the Medina of Constantine constituted traditional architectural elements, which marked the boundaries between urban and rural, reassured protection, controlled transitions between exterior and interior and structured the commercial fabric of the city.

French colonisation of the city in 1837 was a flagship event, which profoundly transformed the Medina and especially its entrances.

This article, based on a historical approach, reveals the colonial urban interventions and the radical mutations, which affected Constantine's entrances throughout more than a century of colonisation, led to the disappearance of the gates, and bequeathed the current form of gateways.