Albares officially inaugurates the Cervantes center in Oran nearly 18 years after its founding

The Diplomat The Cervantes Institute celebrated the official opening of its center in Oran this Friday, presided over by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, during his official visit to Algeria. The event took place almost 18 years after the center's founding. "I am inaugurating the new headquarters of the Cervantes Institute in Oran, a space that strengthens the human ties between Spain and Algeria through our languages and culture," Albares wrote on social media. "Thousands of students learn Spanish here," he affirmed. "This center contributes to understanding, dialogue, and cooperation between our peoples," he concluded. The Oran center is located in a modern building in the Saint Hubert residential neighborhood. The Cervantes Institute's presence in Oran began with a cultural center affiliated with the Consulate in 1990. From 2003, it operated as an extension of the Algiers center, with satellite classrooms in the cities of Mostaganem, Tlemcen, Sidi Bel Abbes, and Mascara. In September 2008, it became an independent center. After several locations throughout the city, its headquarters have been housed in the current Saint Hubert building since 2019. Besides Albares, who emphasized during the event the importance of this "space that strengthens the bridge between both shores of the Mediterranean and contributes to further fostering dialogue between Spain and Algeria, between our peoples, and especially with this city," the inauguration was also attended by the director of the Oran center, Juan Manuel Cid Muñoz; the Spanish Ambassador to Algeria, Ramiro Fernández Bachiller; and the Director of Culture for Oran, Bouchra Salhi. The minister unveiled the plaque commemorating the center's official opening and signed the guestbook. He also visited the center's library, named after Francesc Boix, the Spanish photographer deported from France to the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1941. Boix worked in the camp's photographic laboratory, from which he smuggled negatives that reflected the reality of the camp and the extermination of prisoners at the hands of the SS. His images were presented as evidence to convict several Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg and Dachau trials in 1946. It is estimated that some 40,000 Algerian students currently study Spanish in the country's formal education system (primary and secondary school), and about 3,500 at the university level. The Cervantes Institutes in Algiers and Oran have been carrying out important work in this area for decades. The two centers in Algiers and Oran rank among the top in student enrollment within the Cervantes Institute network, making Algeria the third country in the network worldwide in terms of educational activity. Furthermore, both institutes are among the top ten centers in the network in terms of enrollment. In the case of Oran, 2025 saw an increase in both student enrollment and DELE exams compared to previous years. Enrollment totaled 4,091 (compared to 3,095 in 2024), while 306 DELE exams were administered (190 the previous year). The first Cervantes Institute established in Algeria was in its capital, Algiers, and is one of the oldest centers in the Cervantes Institute network worldwide. The Oran center opened later. In the Algerian capital, the seed of the Institute was the Spanish Cultural Center dependent on the Consulate of Spain, whose building is adjacent to the Cervantes Institute.

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