The European cemetery of Saint-Eugène in Algiers: A possible heritage listing for a complex cultural asset?

Abstract

This article is a scientific essay that proposes to examine the European cemetery of Saint-Eugène in Algiers as a cultural asset. In the current context of a very tense diplomatic crisis, our aim is to consider the long-term relations between the two states through the prism of culture. From this perspective, respect for the dead is a civilizational constant that can and must be a starting point for restarting dialogue between France and Algeria. The Saint-Eugène cemetery is, in fact, engaged in a process of heritage designation that should be examined. This place of remembrance has the resources to become a complex heritage site. An application for UNESCO World Heritage status is possible, given that the heritage markers of the site reflect an intercultural and interreligious approach that goes beyond a superficial colonial interpretation. In this regard, a joint cultural diplomacy project between the two countries would be an additional guarantee of success.

Introduction

France and Algeria have a chaotic relationship, the result of a turbulent and even tragic history. The period of French colonization of Algeria from 1830 to 1962 and the war of independence from 1954 to 1962 are markers of this difficult history. The Evian Accords of 18 March 1962, signed by France and representatives of the National Liberation Front, were intended to end the conflict. This treaty was not respected, and General de Gaulle was primarily concerned with ending the war as quickly as possible. After 1962, relations between the two countries were marked by a series of misunderstandings and unspoken tensions. Through the 1962 agreements, reinforced by the bilateral Franco-Algerian agreement of 27 September 1968, France offers Algerian migrants and their families living in France privileges that no other non-European nationality enjoys. As a result, Algerians are the largest community in France, even if the figures relating to this population are subject to debate in France. There is therefore a special, organic, and historical relationship between France and Algeria. And this relationship has become critically strained in recent months. The Algerian state regularly invokes the trauma of colonization to point the finger at France. For its part, France has been launching commemorative initiatives since the election of Emmanuel Macron to recreate the conditions for dialogue and partnership (Jomier, 2024), which in reality are nothing more than a recognition of a lack of communication (Wolton, 2024). The President of the French Republic has therefore entrusted historian Benjamin Stora with a mission on “the memory of colonization and the Algerian War.” Submitted in 2021, the Stora report lists a catalog of good intentions to appease the shared memory. But this report has done nothing to ease the tension between the two countries, which has even increased. The lack of communication in the field of culture has manifested itself on the Algerian side to the point of banning the French language in secondary education in 2023, with the obvious exception of the French high school, which is under the jurisdiction of the French consular services. The current diplomatic crisis is the most serious since the end of the war of independence. We will not go into the list of grievances and points of tension put forward on either side of the Mediterranean. Our focus is elsewhere. It is part of a long-term process, in what can bring people together, or at least in an approach to talking to each other, to engage in dialogue, far from international relations viewed solely through the prism of politics and economics.

Information and communication sciences focus on what happens between the sender and receiver of a message. It is therefore a discipline that examines, among other things, mediation. During the colonial period, there were migratory movements from France, but also from other European countries such as Spain, Italy, Malta, and others, to what would become Algeria. There were also Jewish communities in this territory that had been settled for centuries, coming from Spain, but also from the Balearic Islands. Over time, these populations buried their dead in Jewish and Christian cemeteries. At first glance, these cemeteries are markers of this history torn between the two countries. A more detailed analysis of the sites can sometimes reveal unique trajectories that contributed to a form of cohabitation and moments of sharing that went far beyond social, religious, or ethnic origins. The purpose of this article is to examine the reality of the Saint-Eugène cemetery in Algiers from the perspective of heritage preservation. The latter is considered to be the largest European cemetery in North Africa. The work presented here is a scientific essay, a starting point for offering a unique perspective on the Saint-Eugène cemetery in Algiers and, in the coming months when bilateral relations have calmed down, undertaking a major scientific research project to complement and enrich the heritage preservation process already underway.

Using a framework based on the potential heritage status of this site, we will show that a process based, among other things, on the use of cultural diplomacy, can produce an artifact that brings Algeria and France together. In the first part, we will address the current situation of European cemeteries in Algeria. In the second part, we will define the complex object that the Saint-Eugène cemetery in Algiers represents today. Finally, in the third and the last part, we will study the implementation of a heritage preservation regime for this cemetery, with a possible cultural diplomacy project.

Methodologically, in order to develop this future research project, we visited the Saint-Eugène cemetery in Algiers to physically explore the site and understand the possible continuity between the two Jewish and Christian cemeteries and the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, which overlooks the hill where the cemetery is located, facing the Mediterranean Sea. Operationally, we produced a photographic report in November 2023, then supplemented this exploratory visit with interviews with the leaders of the Association des Amis des Cimetières de Saint-Eugène (ACSE), which is actively involved in the preservation and maintenance of the site. We therefore conducted semistructured interviews in November 2025 with Mr Jena-Paul Durand, president of the association, and Mr Ouail Laabassi, representative of the ACSE in Algiers.

The dynamics of European cemeteries in Algeria

In this section, we will propose an approach to death as a public, political, regulatory, heritage, and memorial issue (Bellanger and Tartakowsky, 2011).

Historical elements

The term Europeans of Algeria is used to define the successive populations that participated in colonization initiated by France in 1830. In successive waves, French and other Europeans from the Mediterranean basin came to settle in Algeria, eventually representing a significant proportion of the population in Algeria before independence. In fact, in 1954, there were 1 million Europeans for every 8 million Algerians (Despois, 1956). Colonizing a territory means populating it, inhabiting it, living there, and dying there. By settling in Algeria, Europeans established their rituals and way of life, founding their own cemeteries which came to overlap with the existing funerary landscapes composed of Muslim and Jewish cemeteries (Garcin, 2023). Until 1962, so-called Christian cemeteries were referred to as European. They are managed by the municipalities where they are located and are legally required to accept all deceased persons. These are mainly Catholics, but they also accept deceased persons who are excluded from denominational, Jewish, or Muslim cemeteries by the religious authorities that manage them.

Traditionally, in Muslim countries, burial plots are free and granted in perpetuity. In Algeria, French legislation applied to cemeteries until 1962, as most cemeteries are communal. This means that the land belongs to the city, which is responsible for maintaining the common areas. For their part, families own the funerary monuments, which they are responsible for maintaining. After independence in 1962, Algerian law essentially adopted French law with regard to cemeteries. However, “no action is taken to reclaim expired concessions” (Duhau, 2023:1). European returnees experienced a break that was often difficult to overcome psychologically in order to return to the country and take care of the graves of their deceased loved ones. Similarly, their descendants saw themselves as the bearers of a largely fragmented history, which did not facilitate their involvement in the monitoring and maintenance of family graves. Exogenous variables, such as the civil war in Algeria in the 1990s, also did not facilitate exchanges for the maintenance and remembrance of family graves.

Bilateral actions concerning European cemeteries

The preliminary interministerial report on French cemeteries in Algeria (Duhau, 2023) lists 745 cemeteries based on the archives consulted. Following consolidation plans orchestrated by the French government with the agreement of the Algerian government in the 1960s, there are still around 440 French cemeteries on Algerian soil, including 41 consolidated cemeteries in 2023. These traces of the memory of the European populations of Algeria, which are significant in number, oblige the two states to engage in dialogue. Historically, this has not been easy. After independence, France wanted to preserve the sanctity of European graves and the right of the dead to eternal rest. On the Algerian side, the country found itself having to manage the logistics of maintaining cemeteries and dealing with considerable land pressure in urban areas, given the country's population growth. Finally, the traces left by the burial of deceased colonists were symbolically charged for the Algerian state. Nevertheless, discussions at the highest levels of the French and Algerian states began officially in the summer of 1968 (Garcin, 2023) to organize each country's commitments to the maintenance of European cemeteries. The 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s saw a steady deterioration of the graves and the abandonment of their maintenance due to the passage of time and difficult communications and exchanges between the repatriated populations and those who remained in place after independence. In terms of the resources committed by the Algerian state, municipalities often simply provided free accommodation on site to a family of caretakers to ensure the preservation of the cemetery. This is very little. Initial analysis of French cemeteries in Algeria, carried out by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture, and the Armed Forces, shows that the budgets allocated to consulates for clearing and minimal maintenance work are largely insufficient to maintain 440 cemeteries (Duhau, 2023).

They do not even allow for the clearing of group cemeteries and monitoring of the condition of group ossuaries. In this context, the French government recommends implementing a policy of grouping cemeteries together in order to rationalize resources, but also to prevent possible deliberate damage to graves.

Deliberate damage and deterioration of graves over time

In this paragraph, we draw on the remarkable work carried out by Margot Garcin (2023) on European cemeteries in Algeria since 1962. Over the past three decades, rumors have circulated and signs of damage have been observed in various European cemeteries, including the Saint-Eugène cemetery, which is the subject of this study. The risk of cemetery desecration has haunted and continues to haunt the Europeans still living in Algeria. Garcin's work shows that this has occurred without being systematic and without being a political or ideological act. During our ethnographic stay in 2023 to better understand the location, layout, and characteristics of the Saint-Eugène cemetery in Algiers, we interviewed Algiers residents who are familiar with the site. The most enlightening response came from a taxi driver who spontaneously told us: “The dead are sacred, they must not be touched”. Regardless of our affiliation and our religion or, respect for the dead is universal. You should know that I am sad and hurt when this happens. It is done by thieves who are looking for gold and jewelry, which you Christians place in the graves of your deceased. This explanation is fully in line with the civilizational invariant demonstrated by sociologist Bernard. Lahire (2023) and corroborates the work of Margot Garcin. When desecration occurs, it is an act of vandalism and pure delinquency for the purpose of immediate profit. But most of the damage is the result of the passage of time, which causes ground movement and root growth that alters the structure of the graves. Time is gradually erasing the traces of those who chose Algeria as their final resting place. Amidst this historical and contextual backdrop of European cemeteries in Algeria, one cemetery deserves special analysis due to its history, location, architecture, uniqueness, and the rich profiles of the personalities buried there.

A complex subject: The Saint-Eugène cemetery in Algiers

Brief historical description of the cemetery

The Saint-Eugène cemetery is located in the municipality of Bologhine, on the northern coast of Algiers. It consists of a Jewish cemetery and a Christian cemetery, which are adjacent to each other. The 14.5-hectare site, including 4 hectares for the Jewish cemetery, was the main cemetery in Algiers and the largest cemetery in French Algeria. It lies at the foot of the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, a Roman-Byzantine style building consecrated on 2 July 1872. This basilica, architecturally very similar to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille, is a symbol of interfaith openness, as an inscription in the heart of the basilica states, “Notre-Dame d'Afrique, pray for us and for the Muslims.” The basilica has been listed as a historical monument on the Algerian cultural heritage list since 2012 (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Basilica of Our Lady of Africa (personal photo by the author).

The Christian cemetery was created by municipal decree in 1836. It was then gradually enlarged over the years until 1962. The Jewish cemetery was created in 1849 to support the Jewish community of Algiers in organizing funerals according to Jewish religious rites. According to Noureddine Guéry, deputy director of Algiers cemeteries, there are 25,000 graves and 135,000 deceased. The cemetery is structured in tiers, with a lower section containing the consular plot where representatives of several states are buried. There is also a military section located under the basilica and an ossuary for the chief rabbis of Algiers from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. It should also be noted that the cemetery is the burial place of “the two Spanish rabbis who re-founded the community of Algiers in the 14th century, Ribach (1326–1408) and Rachbats (1361–1444)” (Durand, 2015: 253). Closer to home, members of the Andalusian musical orchestra of Algiers are buried in the Jewish cemetery of Saint-Eugène. From the accompanying engraving, “we can see Master Bouchara on the violin, master and band leader and soloist Benfaracho playing the hurdy-gurdy (R'beb), Master Eliaho Seror on the kwitra (Algerian lute), and Master Edmond Nathan Yafil on the mandolin,” said Ouail Laabassi during his interview (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Andalusian musical orchestra of Algiers.

These cultural figures helped to preserve the Andalusian musical heritage and thus the Algerian identity from the cultural hegemony imposed by the French authorities.

Continuing with the previous example, Jules Rouanet is also buried in Saint-Eugène. A French musicologist, he is the reference point for Algerian musical heritage. This indicative list shows that many of the graves in the Saint-Eugène cemetery belong to inclusive cultural figures, far removed from the cliché of colonial markers, a criticism often expressed by anticolonial or nationalist activists.

A multidisciplinary inventory would highlight universal cultural figures who could serve as landmarks for a cultural tour that could be organized within the two cemeteries of Saint-Eugène. Given that colonial memory is a very sensitive issue on the Algerian side, we believe it is relevant and even essential to jointly develop a more distanced analysis of the Saint-Eugène cemetery. Cemeteries are historical archives where respecting the memory and eternal rest of the dead does not mean legitimizing colonialism.

The memory embodied by the Saint-Eugène cemetery is not a shared memory, as French President Emmanuel Macron often claims. It could, however, be a place of shared memory with a commitment on both sides of the Mediterranean to reciprocity in the critical analysis of the construction of this memory.

Heritage originality and symbolic dimension

The architectural monuments in the Saint-Eugène cemetery deserve special attention. Since 1962, when burials ceased, the cemetery has been left abandoned. Acts of vandalism and desecration have been observed, particularly at the top of the cemetery and at the ossuary of the great rabbis of Algiers. The ACSE, created in 2018, is an important organization that works to protect the built heritage of Saint-Eugène as much as it can with its limited resources. Its role as a mediator and catalyst between the French authorities and the wilaya (municipality) of Algiers, as well as local stakeholders, contributes to the maintenance and renovation of family graves and the restoration of the consuls’ section of the Christian cemetery, the rabbis’ mausoleum, the war memorial, the 1914–1918 military section, and the 1939–1945 military section. Such an association is a vehicle for communication and flexible networking between state structures whose relations and cooperation are currently at a standstill.

On another note, the symbolic significance of the Saint-Eugène cemetery goes far beyond its role as a burial place for European graves. Over the past 20 years, three presidents of the Republic, namely Jacques Chirac in 2003, François Hollande in 2012, and Emmanuel Macron in 2022, as well as ministers Michèle Alliot-Marie, French Minister of Defense in 2004, and Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior in 2020, have visited the Saint-Eugène cemetery during various state visits and official trips. There is therefore a strong political incentive to highlight this European cemetery, while moving beyond the colonial marker for which representatives of the French state could be criticized. There is an attachment in terms of image that does not translate into a financial commitment to maintain the site, which is left to the families and associations to take care of. French officials have come and gone, and Jacques Chirac was the first to announce France's implementation of an action and cooperation plan relating to French civilian graves in Algeria, without this bringing any real significant benefit to the Saint-Eugène cemetery.

Towards a heritage protection regime for the Saint-Eugène cemetery

Theoretical framework of heritage and heritage preservation

As early as 1969, the General Association of Museum Curators declared that “Heritage is the sum total of all natural and man-made assets, without limitation of time or place. It constitutes the object of culture. This dynamic and forward-looking concept, which is clearly evident in the development of our civilization, is essential to the health and survival of civilization. In addition to the mission of to preserve and transmit, it implies the protection and exploitation of acquired heritage and future heritage.” (Davallon, 2014: 4) Based on this generic framework, historians specify that heritage establishes a relationship between the present and the past, thus bringing the past into the present (Nora, 1997). In addition, an object that has lost its original usefulness and value may acquire heritage value, that is, recognition of its heritage character through the mediation of third parties, sometimes institutions, which refer to this process as heritage preservation. This has a social character. Indeed, for an object to become heritage, it must originate from a social group and be in the interest of that group. This starting point must then be legitimized by an authority outside the group in question, in order to concern a wider social group. To do this, we must also take into account “the central role of knowledge production in the heritage designation process… because without studying objects (whether tangible or intangible), without collecting memories, without researching their social, historical, and cultural context, it would be impossible to know them or give them heritage status. “ (Davallon, 2014: 18). This research, which we hope will be the start of a future program of studies between France and Algeria, is part of this process of heritage preservation that we wish to initiate for the Saint-Eugène cemetery. Thus, “heritage designation is the process by which a community recognizes the heritage status of tangible or intangible objects, so that this community becomes the heir to those who produced them and, as such, has an obligation to preserve them in order to pass them on” (Davallon, 2014: 1). Jean Davallon then proposes five complementary principles of action that work together to ensure the success of the heritage designation process.

Possible levers for the heritage preservation of the Saint-Eugène cemetery

The first principle of action lies in the interest shown in the object by a more or less large, more or less organized collective or social group. Associations for the preservation of European cemeteries, and more particularly the ACSE, embody part of this collective.

Similarly, the report produced in 2023 on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Culture, and the Armed Forces demonstrates the French authorities’ ongoing interest in cemetery management. It should be noted that the initial findings of the French interministerial mission specify that the two adjacent cemeteries, Christian and Jewish, which make up the Saint-Eugène cemetery in Algiers are quite unique. The author states that “from a heritage perspective, not only is their conservation fundamental to the specific restoration operations that must be considered, but in order to establish this heritage approach, the property should be protected in accordance with Algerian legislation” (Duhau, 2023: 7). The rapporteur sees this operation as an essential prerequisite for subsequently applying for UNESCO World Heritage status. This complex cultural property is therefore considered a find in the sense used by Umberto Eco (Eco, 1993), that is, something more than its functional use, namely a cemetery that allows the memory of the deceased to be preserved, to become something else, a space, a powerful symbolic object with its consul's square, the unique architecture of the buildings within the two cemeteries, and the remarkable personalities buried in this cemetery. The geographical location at the foot of Notre-Dame d'Afrique, facing the Mediterranean Sea, the presence of the deceased with exceptional destinies, such as the fourteenth-century rabbis and the masters of Arab-Andalusian music. Similarly, the consuls’ square and the military square contribute to producing annual tributes that are both lively and permanent. The symbolic value of the Saint-Eugène site goes beyond the sum of the objects that make up this complex cultural property. Indeed, if the shared symbolic and intangible significance, internalized at least in France, were not real, would three presidents of the Republic have come to participate in media communications inside Saint-Eugène?

The second step involves producing scientific knowledge about the Saint-Eugène cemetery and its world of origin. To date, very few scientific works have examined the cultural object that is the Saint-Eugène cemetery, with the notable exception of a sociohistorical contribution in a collective work on the Jews of Algeria (Durand, 2015) and a remarkable work by a young historian on European cemeteries in Algeria (Garcin, 2023). However, understanding this complex site as both a cemetery and a place of remembrance, but also as a complex heritage site with architectural, historical, media, and cultural dimensions allows us to examine the Saint-Eugène cemetery from a new perspective, with a possible research project focusing on the mediation of the site and its corollary, opening it up to a wider audience than just families repatriated from Algeria.

The third step consists of declaring its heritage status. It goes without saying that an object only becomes heritage once an authority declares it as such. “This declaration is a performative act, the form of which can vary from a simple public statement to a legal or administrative act signing a registration or classification procedure” (Davallon, 2014: 2). This step requires active and leading action on the part of the Algerian state, even if this can and must be done with the assistance of the French state. The current tense diplomatic relations between the two states mean that such a dynamic is not on the agenda. Nevertheless, avenues for future collaboration in this regard can at least be explored. The French interministerial mission of 2023 thus mentions a possible partnership “between the heritage department of the French Ministry of Culture and the directorate for the conservation and restoration of cultural heritage at the Algerian Ministry of Culture and Arts. This would be similar to what already exists between the two countries in the field of archaeology” (Duhau, 2023: 7). Such a mission would make it possible to examine the complex object in an interdisciplinary manner in order to establish its scope and detailed structure, and to be able to register it in the Algerian cultural and arts heritage register.

The fourth step is to organize collective access to the heritage site. At the Saint-Eugène cemetery, a multidisciplinary and bilateral scientific program is essential to identify notable figures, artists, public figures, religious figures, etc., in order to develop a tour itinerary with scientific mediation work focused on promoting a possible and even desirable cultural bridge. The collaborative project could then perpetuate the duty of remembrance and respect for the eternal rest due to the dead, regardless of their religious beliefs. But this scientific mediation project must also offer something else, namely a focus on the cultural mixing embodied, among others, by the masters of Arab-Andalusian music, in order to propose points of convergence and spaces for dialogue at the level of individuals and the public, and no longer just at the highest levels of the two states. To achieve this, a paradigm shift must be envisaged and proposed through the goodwill embodied by associations for the protection of cemeteries and heritage, such as the ACSE, which is involved in our exploratory study. Just because the two states are experiencing an unprecedented diplomatic crisis does not mean that we cannot calmly reflect on the maintenance and preservation of graves at the local level and thus consider the cemetery as a heritage entity. The two cemeteries of Saint-Eugène, Christian and Jewish, have this potential for memory and heritage that can be turned toward the future.

This naturally leads us to the final step in the heritage process, namely passing on this unique heritage object to future generations. It does not necessarily embody a common history on both sides of the Mediterranean, but more operationally, two different histories that may have points of connection with a complex heritage object that, on a human scale, through the example of deceased personalities, can embody a bridge, a dialogue that existed between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the specific case of Arab-Andalusian music, for example. Heritage preservation is always a political project, a way of seeing, conceiving, and projecting history and symbols. The challenge must go beyond short-term political exploitation to offer a shared reflection on the long term.

This is the power of the focus on preserving the graves located in Saint-Eugène, whose presence and the rituals practiced by the communities present are markers of this long period of time that must be rediscovered in order to engage in meaningful dialogue. The members of the associations involved in maintaining the cemeteries we met are fully committed to this nonpartisan spirit and to respecting the dead, which is the starting point for developing respect for the living. We are, in fact, researchers and participants in a scientific project that goes beyond the discipline we represent. And this ambition could ideally serve to secure UNESCO World Heritage status thanks to renewed collaboration between Algeria and France.

From this perspective, the Saint-Eugène cemetery is already in the process of being recognized as a heritage site. Indeed, this complex entity is achieving a form of heritage recognition that results from heritage interpretive schemes that are in operation, even if they are of low intensity. The continued practice of holding November 11 ceremonies in the consuls’ section of the cemetery, where French, British, American, and Swedish consular authorities, as well as the apostolic nuncio, gather, is an expression of a symbolic attachment to what the place embodies. Similarly, an open-air mass was again held on November 2, All Souls’ Day for Catholics, in the Saint-Eugène cemetery. The presence of the representative of the Jewish consistory and his public address at Saint-Eugène each year during the November 11 celebrations are further markers of this interculturality, which has existed and continues to exist as much as possible. “Heritage has thus left its historical, national, and monumental age to enter an age of memory, society, and identity” (Nora, 2010: 123).

The symbols presented in this way circulate in texts and publications, especially in the age of social media, and are already “a heritage-ization of undeclared facts, an experience of heritage…” (Davallon, 2024: 40). Through a social process, the memory of the deceased and the physical reality of the cemetery is transformed over time into an element of culture. Even if only to a limited extent, we believe that the Saint-Eugène cemetery and the collaboration with associations such as the ACSE are part of a process of heritage preservation of a complex heritage entity that is just beginning and cannot be completed without the effective collaboration of France and Algeria.

The Saint-Eugène cemetery in Algiers, a possible cultural diplomacy project

Initiating a dialogue between Algeria and France is necessary to produce a common recognition of heritage. Firstly, heritage should be institutionalized at the Algerian state level and, ideally, secondly, steps should be taken to register it as UNESCO World Heritage. In many respects, it may seem illusory and completely utopian to discuss active, respectful, and peaceful collaboration between the two countries. But our aim is not to focus on current events. Our contribution is to lay the foundations for a dual and constructive perspective on finding meaning together through culture and, more specifically, through a complex and intercultural heritage object located in a remarkable space open to the sea. In the coming months, when the current tensions between the two states have subsided, cultural cooperation will, in our view, be the best possible starting point for dialogue, because “communication exists in diplomacy” (Peyre, 2021: 97) and that “culture is therefore seen as a means of touching the hearts and minds of a state's population, freeing itself from the powers that be” (Peyre, 2021:95). If a cultural cooperation project is to be undertaken at a given moment between the two countries, it should be at the level of the ministries responsible for such matters, namely the Ministry of Culture. It would probably be counterproductive to take such projects to the highest level of government, where the embodiment of the project is associated with a person, even if that person is the President of the Republic, and could thus create unnecessary tension. This is all the more true given the recent turbulent history between the two countries concerned. Similarly, in this specific case, we believe it is necessary to break free from the current paradigm of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the gateway for all international state collaboration, which consists of favoring influence diplomacy (Chaubet, Faucher, Martin, Peyre, 2024). However, influence diplomacy is instrumental; it serves to act in France's interests. French-style soft power focuses on building long-term relationships of trust; nevertheless, all these expressions related to influence must not be mobilized to truly serve the project of collaboration at the Saint-Eugène cemetery. It is a long-term project, and abandoning the instrumental dimension of influence is also a way of avoiding giving ammunition to the detractors of this potential project, who will inevitably make themselves heard in due course. Similarly, the desirable collaboration between the two states to bring about the heritage status of Saint-Eugène Hill must quickly move beyond bilateral relations to become part of the broader and more effective field of UNESCO. The Vatican can act as a mediator in this intercultural and interreligious perspective, as we recall that the site is overlooked by the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, which, in our view, should eventually be included in the heritage perimeter of this complex site (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

The hill of the Saint-Eugène cemetery, by the sea, with the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa at the top (personal photo by the author).

The format of this communication does not allow us to go into further detail about the operational structure of the joint process to be implemented at the diplomatic level, but we believe that such a dynamic would be a powerful lever enabling future generations to embrace a shared history rather than a common history, as is too often claimed by the French authorities (Jomier A. 2024).

In conclusion

The cultural site of Saint-Eugène Cemetery, comprising the Christian cemetery, the Jewish cemetery, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa, is an extraordinary landscape with a 180° view of the Mediterranean Sea. It has the power to transcend its role as a place of remembrance and engage in a process of heritage preservation. The presence of the graves of the two Spanish rabbis who re-founded the community of Algiers in the fourteenth century, as well as the consuls’ square and the graves of Arab-Muslim music masters and other personalities to be discovered in the same vein, are all markers of a possible dialogue on a shared history, a heritage to be kept alive so that we are not face to face but rather side by side. Respect for the memory of the deceased is a universal constant that can and must be the starting point for both commemorating the past and opening up to dialogue and sharing what may have been common ground at a given moment. Rigorous and nonpartisan scientific work can be undertaken with a view to recognition by UNESCO, which guarantees a humanistic vision in the service of the common good. This is the challenge of this heritage preservation, which must be a starting point and not an end goal for such a subject and such a broad scientific perspective.