Sidi Bel Abbes Province
French Foreign Legion headquarters 1843-1962. The Legion built the city, processed every recruit through it, then marched out carrying its museum to France.
For 119 years, Sidi Bel Abbes was the French Foreign Legion. The Legion built the town. The Legion defined it. When Algeria gained independence in 1962, the Legion marched out carrying its museum to Aubagne, France. The city's soul went with it.
The story begins with a tomb. The town is named for the marabout (saint) Sidi Bel Abbas. French forces established a military outpost here in 1843. By 1849 it was a planned agricultural town, but agriculture wasn't the point. In 1867, all Legion volunteers were henceforth sent to Sidi Bel Abbes. By October 1933, the Foreign Regiments Joint Depot (DCRE) was processing every recruit: reception, uniforms, equipment, basic training, regimental assignment. The Legion's motto—"pax et labor" (peace and work)—described both the city and the institution.
The population was famously mixed: legionnaires from every country meant residents from every country. The old walls and bastions came down in the 1930s, replaced by wide boulevards. When independence came, French troops evacuated. Today the Algerian National Gendarmerie occupies the training facilities. The transition was precise: one military institution replacing another, same buildings, different flag. Sidi Bel Abbes proves that institutional identity can survive total population replacement—and that it can be erased just as completely.