Cherchell
Cherchell
شرشال | |
---|---|
Town | |
Coordinates: 36°36′27″N 02°11′24″E / 36.60750°N 2.19000°E | |
Country | Algeria |
Province | Tipaza |
District | Cherchell |
Population (2008)[1] | |
• Total | 34,372 |
Fort Joinville Lighthouse Cherchell | |
Coordinates | 36°36′41″N 2°11′17″E / 36.61139°N 2.18806°E |
Constructed | 1881[2] |
Foundation | stone base |
Construction | stone tower |
Height | 28.60 metres (93.8 ft)[2] |
Shape | cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern[4] |
Markings | unpainted tower, black lantern |
Operator | Office Nationale de Signalisation Maritime |
Focal height | 40.10 metres (131.6 ft)[2] |
Light source | main power |
Intensity | 1,000 W[2] |
Range | 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi)[2] |
Characteristic | Fl (2+1) W 15s.[3] |
Cherchell (
Names
The town was originally known by a Phoenician and Punic name that included the element ʾY (𐤀𐤉), meaning "island".[5][6] This may have been ʾY-ḤOL,[clarification needed] meaning "Island of Sand".[7] The Punic name was hellenized as Iṑl (Greek: Ἰὼλ)[8] and latinized as Iol.
Cherchel and Cherchell are
History
Antiquity
After the
Iol was annexed directly to Rome in 33 BC.
Their son
The city was sacked by a Berber revolt in 371 and 372. It largely recovered, but was ravaged again by the
Middle Ages
In 533, the
The town remained under Byzantine control until its Muslim conquest in the late 7th century. Successive waves of Umayyad attacks into Byzantine North African territory over 15 years wore down the smaller and less motivated imperial forces, until finally Umayyad troops laid siege to the city of Caesarea and, although the defenders were resupplied by Byzantine fleets, finally overwhelmed it. Much of the Byzantine nobility and officials fled to other parts of the Empire, while most of the remaining Roman and semi-Roman Berber population accepted Islamic rule which granted them protected status.
Some remained Christians.[22] For two generations what remained of the Roman population and Romanized Berbers launched several revolts often in conjunction with reinforcements from the Empire. As a result, by the ninth century down much of the city's defences were damaged beyond repair, and resulting in its political loss of importance, leaving the former city little more than a small village.
For the following few centuries, the city remained a power center of
The
Modernity
Eventually, Ottoman Turks managed to successfully reconquer the city from Spanish occupation in the 16th century, using the city primarily as a fortified port. In 1520,
In reply, European navies and especially the French Navy and the Knights Hospitaller (self-proclaimed descendants of the Crusaders) laid siege to the city and occasionally captured it for limited periods of time. For a century in the 1600s and for a brief period in the 1700s the city either was under Spanish or Hospitallar control. During this period a number of palaces were built, but the overwhelming edifice of Hayreddin Barbarossa's citadel, was considered too militarily valuable to destroy and uncover the previous ancient buildings of old Caesarea.
After the end of the
In turn, many ancient statues and buildings were either restored and left in Cherchell, or taken to museums in Algiers or Paris, for further study. However, not all building projects were successful in uncovering and restoring the ancient town. The Roman amphitheatre was considered mostly unsalvageable and unnecessary to rebuild. Its dress stones were used to the build a new French fort and barracks. Materials from the Hippodrome were used to build a new church. The steps of the Hippodrome were partly destroyed by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie in a search for the tomb of Saint Marciana.
French occupation also brought new European settlement, to join the city's long-established communities of semi-Arabized Christians of local origin and old European merchant families, in addition to Berbers and Arab Muslims. Under French rule, European and Christians became a majority of the population again until World War II.
In the immediate years before World War II, losses to the French national population from World War I, and a declining birthrate in general among Europeans kept further colonial settlement to a trickle. Arab and Berber populations started seeing an increase in growth. French-Algerian colonial officials and landowners encouraged larger numbers of surrounding Berber tribesmen to move into the surrounding region to work the farms and groves cheaply. In turn, more and more Berbers and Arabs moved into the city seeking employment. By 1930 the combined Berbo-Arab Algerian population represented nearly 40% of the city's population.
The changing demographics within the city were disguised by the large numbers of French military personnel based there and the numbers of European tourists visiting what had become known as the
The end of the war with its departure of Allied forces and a reduction of French naval personnel due to rebasing saw an actual decline in Europeans living in the city. Additionally, the general austerity of the post-war years dried up the tourism industry and caused financial stagnation and losses to the local Franco-Algerian community. In 1952, a census recorded that the Frenco-Algerian population had declined to 50% of the population.
For the remaining 1950's Cherchell was only slightly caught up by the
Independent Algeria
Cherchell has continued to grow post-independence, recovering to peak colonial-era population by the 1980s. Cherchell currently has industries in marble, plaster quarries and iron mines. The town trades in oils, tobacco and earthenware. Additionally, the ancient cistern first developed by Juba and Cleopatra Selene II was restored and expanded under recent French rule and still supplies water to the town.
Although the
Historical population
Year | Population[1] |
---|---|
1901 | 9,000 |
1926 | 11,900 |
1931 | 12,700 |
1936 | 12,700 |
1954 | 16,900 |
1966 | 11,700 |
1987 | 18,700 |
1998 | 24,400 |
2015 | 30,000 |
Remains
Earthquakes, wars and plunder have ravaged many of the ancient remains.
The town (of Caesarea) remains insufficiently known....The town walls, studied in 1946, pose more problems; and the monuments are more often simply marked than completely known. The amphitheater, which has been excavated, remains unpublished; the very large hippodrome, which appears clearly on aerial photographs, is known only through old borings. The temples, which have been found on a spur of the mountain to the East of the central esplanade, on the edge of the route from Ténès to the West of the modern town, are too much destroyed to warrant publication even of plans. The baths along the edge of the sea, rather majestic, are also badly preserved. One would scarcely recognize several houses recently excavated. Grouped around peristyles with vast trichinia, they are readily adapted to the terrain and are constructed on terraces on the lower slopes or on the edge of cliffs with views over the sea. They often are preserved for us only in a late form—4th c. A.D.—and traces of the era of Juba are found only in the lower strata. The theater is an exception; still well preserved in 1840, it has since served as a quarry. It was set against the slope of the mountain. At the back of the scaena towards the N was a portico, covered over today by a street, where Gsell saw the S side of the forum. Of the rich scaenae frons there remain only traces and several statues, of which two are colossal muses. The orchestra had later undergone great modification which had resulted in the disappearance of the platform of the stage: an oval arena had been built, intended for hunting spectacles, and a wall was raised between the first row of seats and the cavea to protect spectators from the wild beasts. The sumptuously decorated monument is consequently very much mutilated, but is of interest specifically because of its complex history. The amphitheater, in the E part of the town, was erected in flat open country. It was not oval but rectangular, with the short sides rounded. The tiers of seats, for the most part missing, were carried on ramping vaults, and the arena floor was cut by two perpendicular passages intended for beasts. It is in this arena that St. Marciana was martyred.[24]
Some remains can be seen in the local Archeological Museum of Chercell-Caesarea.
Religion
Caesarea was a
Caesarea was revived by the
- Titular Bishop Biagio Pisani (1897.04.23 – 1901.06.07)
- Titular Bishop Pietro Maffi (1902.06.09 – 1903.06.22)
- Titular Bishop Thomas Francis Brennan (1905.10.07 – 1916.03.20)
- Titular Archbishop Pierre-Célestin Cézerac (1918.01.02 – 1918.03.18)
- Titular Archbishop Cardinal Wilhelmus Marinus van Rossum, CSSR (1918.04.25 – 1918.05.20)
- Titular Archbishop Benedetto Aloisi Masella (1919.12.15 – 1946.02.18)
- Titular Bishop Luigi Cammarata (1946.12.04 – 1950.02.25)
- Titular Bishop Francesco Pennisi (1950.07.11 – 1955.10.01)
- Titular Bishop André-Jacques Fougerat (1956.07.16 – 1957.01.05)
- Titular Bishop Carmelo Canzonieri (1957.03.11 – 1963.07.30)
- Titular Bishop Archbishop Enea Selis (1964.01.18 – 1971.09.02)
- Titular Bishop Giuseppe Moizo (1972.01.22 – 1976.07.01)
- Titular Archbishop Sergio Sebastiani (1976.09.27 – 2001.02.21)
- Titular Bishop Gerard Johannes Nicolaas de Korte (2001.04.11 – 2008.06.18)
- Titular Bishop Stanislaus Tobias Magombo (2009.04.29 – 2010.07.06)
- Titular Archbishop Walter Brandmüller (2010.11.04 – 2010.11.20)
- Titular Archbishop Marek Solczyński (2011.11.26 – present)
Gallery
-
Roman theater
-
Section of Caesarea's Roman aqueduct
-
Photography of ancient Roman inscriptions from Cherchell, 1856
-
Photography of Roman remains from Caesarea, 1856
-
Mosaic of the Three Graces from Caesarea
-
Portrait of Juba II, found in Caesarea
-
Mosaic of vineyard workers
-
Mosaic of the tigers
See also
References
Citations
- ^ a b "populstat.info". populstat.info. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2014-08-27.
- ^ a b c d e "Cherchell". Office Nationale de Signalisation Maritime. Ministere des Travaux Publics. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- List of Lights. United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 2015.
- ^ Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of Western Algeria". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
- ^ Markoe (2000), p. 182.
- ^ Huss (1990), p. 37.
- ^ Lipiński (2004), p. 405.
- ^ a b c Smith (1872), Vol. II, s.v. "Iol".
- ^ a b c Lipiński (2004), p. 406.
- ^ a b Stokes (1905), p. 446.
- ^ Dossey (2010), p. 13.
- ^ Smith (1872), Vol. I, s.v. "Cartenna".
- ^ Berggren & al. (2000), p. 157.
- ^ a b c d Grimal (1983), s.v. "Cherchell".
- ^ a b Roller (2003), p. 121.
- ^ a b c d e f g Potter (2002).
- ^ Callegarin (2011), p. 46.
- ^ Leveau, Philippe. "Caesarea de Maurétanie, une ville romaine et ses campagnes" first chapter
- ^ Leveau Philipe: "L'amphithéâtre et le théâtre-amphithéâtre de Cherchel" (in French)
- ^ Gsell.[who?]
- ^ a b Lillington-Martin (2018), p. 173.
- ^ Virginie Prevost. "Prevost: Les dernières communautés chrétiennes autochtones d'Afrique du Nord" ([1])
- ^ The Cambridge Medieval History Series volumes 1-5. Plantagenet Publishing.
- ^ Princeton: Iol
- ^ Joseph Mesnage, L'Afrique chrétienne, Paris 1912, pp. 447–450
- ^ Charles Courtois, v. Césarée de Maurétanie, in Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques, vol. XII, Paris 1953, coll. 203–206
- ISBN 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 867
Bibliography
- S. Pétridès (1908). "Caesarea Mauretaniae". Catholic Encyclopedia.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 82–83.
- Callegarin, Laurent (2011), "Coinages with Punic and Neo-Punic Legends of Western Mauretania", Money, Trade, and Trade Routes in Pre-Islamic North Africa, British Museum Research Publication, No. 176, London: British Museum, pp. 42–48.
- Dossey, Leslie (2010), Peasant and Empire in Christian North Africa, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 9780520254398.
- Grimal, Pierre (1983), Woloch, G. Michael (ed.), Roman Cities, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, ISBN 9780299089344.
- Huss, Werner (1990), Die Karthager, Munich: C.H. Beck, ISBN 9783406379123. (in German)
- Lillington-Martin, Christopher (2018), "Procopius, Πάρεδος/Quaestor, Codex Justinianus, 1.27, and Belisarius's Strategy in the Mediterranean", Procopius of Caesarea: Literary and Historical Interpretations, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 157–185, ISBN 9781317075493.
- ISBN 9789042913448.
- Markoe, Glenn E. (2000), Phoenicians, Peoples of the Past, Berkeley: University of California Press, ISBN 9780520226142.
- Oengus (1905), Stokes, Whitley (ed.), The Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee..., Harrison & Sons.
- ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8.
- ISBN 0691010420.
- Roller, Duane W. (2003), The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene, New York: Routledge, ISBN 9781134402960.
- Smith, Philip (1872), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography..., vol. I & II, London: John Murray.
External links
- GigaCatholic with titular incumbent biography links
- Various ancient ruins of Cherchell:
- A Roman ruin
- An ancient theater Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
- A Roman aqueduct near Cherchell