The Villa des Oliviers is a historic Moorish Revival architecture building in El Biar near Algiers. Since 1963, it has been the residence of the French ambassador in Algeria.
The Villa des Oliviers is a historic Moorish Revival architecture building in El Biar near Algiers. Since 1963, it has been the residence of the French ambassador in Algeria.
The name of the villa does not come from olive trees (French : oliviers) but from the Olivier family which lived there for a quarter century after 1881. [1] Even so, there are olive trees in the villa's garden. Depending on sources, they are described either as predating the villa's construction, [1] or as planted after 1962 by a French ambassador from Provence. [2] : 55–56
The villa was purchased in 1835 by Ms (Princess) de Mir. In 1838 it became the property of John Frédérik Schultze, consul of Sweden and Norway, and his wife Frances, who nicknamed it La Calorama (meaning "beautiful view" in Greek). It was bought by Victor Olivier in 1881. [1]
Maxime Weygand, then the General Delegate in French Africa for Vichy France, stayed at the villa during a brief visit in Algiers in late 1940. [1] It then became the Algiers residence of Alphonse Juin, who in November 1941 had succeeded Weygand as commander of the Vichy regime's military forces in North Africa. Juin was staying there during Operation Torch.
Charles de Gaulle established his residence in the villa in June 1943, immediately following his landing at Boufarik Airport on 30 May 1943. [2] : 55 According to French ambassador Xavier Driencourt , De Gaulle had deliberately chosen the site for its relative remoteness from the city of Algiers and its multiple factions at the time. [3] He established his office at the nearby Villa des Glycines. [4] The villa remained De Gaulle's residence in Algiers until his final departure on 18 August 1944, when he relocated to liberated France.
In negotiations with the new independent Algerian government in 1963, ambassador Georges Gorse obtained that France would retain the Villa des Oliviers for the residence of its ambassador. [4]
Operation Torch was an Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa while allowing American armed forces the opportunity to begin their fight against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on a limited scale. It was the first mass involvement of US troops in the European–North African Theatre and saw the first large-scale airborne assault carried out by the United States.
Free France was a political entity claiming to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic during World War II. Led by General Charles de Gaulle, Free France was established as a government-in-exile in London in June 1940 after the Fall of France to Nazi Germany. It joined the Allied nations in fighting Axis forces with the Free French Forces, supported the resistance in Nazi-occupied France, known as the French Forces of the Interior, and gained strategic footholds in several French colonies in Africa.
Henri Honoré Giraud was a French military officer who was a leader of the Free French Forces during the Second World War until he was forced to retire in 1944.
Alphonse Pierre Juin was a senior French Army general who became Marshal of France. A graduate of the École Spéciale Militaire class of 1912, he served in Morocco in 1914 in command of native troops. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, he was sent to the Western Front in France, where he was gravely wounded in 1915. As a result of this wound, he lost the use of his right arm.
Robert Daniel Murphy was an American diplomat. He served as the first United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs when the position was established during the Eisenhower administration.
Georges Albert Julien Catroux was a French Army general and diplomat who served in both World War I and World War II, and served as Grand Chancellor of the Légion d'honneur from 1954 to 1969.
Henri d'Astier de La Vigerie was a French soldier, Résistance member, and conservative politician.
José Aboulker was an Algerian Jew and the leader of the anti-Nazi resistance in French Algeria in World War II. He received the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the Croix de Guerre, and was made a Companion of the Liberation and a Commander of the Légion d'honneur. After the war, he became a neurosurgeon and a political figure in France, who advocated for the political rights of Algerian Muslims.
Germain Jousse, was a member of the French Resistance during World War II.
Bernard Karsenty, was a member of the French Resistance during World War II. He was a leader of the Algiers putsch of 1942.
The French State, popularly known as Vichy France, as led by Marshal Philippe Pétain after the Fall of France in 1940 before Nazi Germany, was quickly recognized by the Allies, as well as by the Soviet Union, until 30 June 1941 and Operation Barbarossa. However, France broke with the United Kingdom after the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. Canada maintained diplomatic relations until the occupation of Southern France by Germany and Italy in November 1942.
The French Committee of National Liberation was a provisional government of Free France formed by the French generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle to provide united leadership, organize and coordinate the campaign to liberate France from Nazi Germany during World War II. The committee was formed on 3 June 1943 and after a period of joint leadership, on 9 November it came under the chairmanship of de Gaulle. The committee directly challenged the legitimacy of the Vichy regime and unified all the French forces that fought against the Nazis and collaborators. The committee functioned as a provisional government for Algeria and the liberated parts of the colonial empire. Later it evolved into the Provisional Government of the French Republic, under the premiership of Charles de Gaulle.
Hervé Alphand was a French diplomat, and French ambassador to the United States, from 1956 to 1965.
Charles Noguès was a French general. He graduated from the École Polytechnique, and he was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion of Honour in 1939.
The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance.
The Provisional Consultative Assembly was a governmental organ of Free France that operated under the aegis of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) and that represented the resistance movements, political parties, and territories that were engaged against Germany in the Second World War alongside the Allies.
The French Civil and Military High Command was an administrative and military governing body in Algiers that was created in connection with the Allied landings in French North Africa on 7 and 8 November 1942 as part of Operation Torch. It came about as a result of negotiations between the Americans and two military figures from Vichy France whom the Americans believed could assure safe passage for the landing forces, namely Henri Giraud and François Darlan.
The Villa Montfeld is an historic residence in the El Biar district of Algiers, Algeria, which serves as the residence of the Ambassador of the United States to Algeria. The villa was built in the mid-19th century and was reconstructed in a Moorish Revival style by the English architect Benjamin Bucknall between 1878 and 1895. In 1947 the villa was bought by the United States government for use as an ambassadorial residence. In 1981 Villa Montfeld hosted negotiations leading to the Algiers Accords, which ended the Iran hostage crisis.
The Embassy of France in Algiers is France's diplomatic mission to Algeria. Since the country’s independence in 1962, its Chancery has been located in the Peltzer Park neighborhood of Hydra, a suburb of Algiers.