Notre Dame d'Afrique

The outside and inside of a singular church in the heart of a Muslim city.

Muslims come to see this Moorish style basilica on a point overlooking the bay. It dates to 1872. So big a people-draw is it that the parking lot is patrolled by police cars.

A bronze statue of Our Lady of Africa dressed in a embroidered gown dominates the altar. Some accounts claim that women come to pray before her when they have trouble getting pregnant, but the three Muslim women we asked said they'd heard about the place and came out of simple curiosity.

The church is decorated with a series of frescoes from the life of Saint Augustine, who was Algerian. (A bit of history from Internet research here: Algeria was Christian from the 2nd century AD. It was colonised before the Christian era by the Phoenecians who settled along the coasts while the Berbers lived in the interior. In 200 BC the Romans invaded and stayed for 900 years until the Arabs invaded -- and Islamization ended domination of Christianity. )

Over the main altar an inscription in French reads: "Our Lady of Africa, pray for us and for the Muslims."