Logo © Bel Horizon
Created in 2002, on the occasion of the 11th centenary of the city, Bel Horizon is a dynamic association that aims at promoting Oranese heritage in all its aspects. The guides trained by the association offer others thematic tours, which make the participants aware of the patrimony wealth in Oran : objects from the Antiquity (Phoenician and Roman trading-posts), Kasbah vestiges, Spanish fortifications, Ottoman palaces and French art deco buildings show the cross-bred heritage of the city.
Guided tour © Le Petit Lecteur
« The Little Reader of Oran» was a founding member and shares the same concern for a quality cultural development, open to everybody, to children and young people. This complicity lead them to give rise to profitable synergies in cultural events. In this way, several events of the story telling festival are taking place in places chosed by Bel Horizon. Tales, legends and other marvellous stories make people hear the echos of the great History on. Similarly, the mutual confidence led to the development of literary guided tours with the participation of Oranese writers and meeting with the audience.
At first, the association developped mainly guided tours of historical and architectural sites to allow the Oranese people know better their city and their history. Now Bel Horizon offers a large number of events. Notably, the hiking organised every 1st of May until the Santa Cruz fort
surpassed all the expectations. Whereas the procession counted 500 people in 2006, more than 20 000 people came to tread the old pilgrimage way, in 2011.
Guided tour © Bel Horizon
Through its activities, new proposals and partnerships, Bel Horizon has enlivened a shared public space. During the latest processions of the first of May, thanks to the support of the French Institute, street artists punctuated the paths. It allowed the audience to discover traditional or innovative, Algerian or foreign performance in open fields.
Despite the sucess and thirst for identity and knowledge expressed by the population turns out to be controversial. The exploding population and the real estate speculation fit badly with archaeological dig, conservation and valorisation matters. However a biggest awareness is allowed by the growing recognition of the association and the Heritage Act of 1998.
For more information :
http://www.oran-belhorizon.com/
