The Place de la Kahina, in front of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, was the heart of French Oran's bourgeois quarter — broad pavements, plane trees, grand apartment buildings with wrought-iron balconies. The square is named for the Kahina, the 7th-century Berber queen who led the resistance against the Arab conquest of North Africa.
The cathedral-turned-library dominates the square; cafés on the perimeter make it a good lunch stop on a walking tour of the colonial centre.