Bougara

Bougara is a town in the Mitidja plain in Algeria, about 20 kilometers due south of Algiers. Located on the N29, the main road between Blida and Larbaâ, it is the capital of Bougara District, in Blida Province.

Previously, under French rule, it was called "Rovigo"; it can be found with this name on [http://mitidja.free.fr/cartes/algerie-62/b2.jpgthis excerpt] from the 1962 Michelin map of Algeria. The French name was chosen to honour the Duc de Rovigo who was commander-in-chief of the French army in Algeria from December 1831 to April 1833 [cite book |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=d1c-J_IfSEQC|title=Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria|date=1995|isbn=1850430438|author=Patricia M. E. Lorcin] [cite book |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=x_-5XTVKW08C|title=Algeria, 1830-2000: A Short History |date=2001|isbn=0801489164|author=Benjamin Stora] , when he was recalled due to the overtly violent nature of his repressive regime. Post cards of the town under French rule can be seen [http://www.abcdelacpa.com/algerie_rovigo.html here] .

There are the saline thermal springs at Hammam-Mélouane, eight kilometes south-west of the town [cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Pl8YAAAAMAAJ|title=The Earth and Its Inhabitants (vol. 11)|date=1893|author=Élisée Reclus] . An old postcard showing the baths complex can be seen [http://www.abcdelacpa.com/12918.jpghere] .

British Army troops were billeted on French-owned farms outside Rovigo in the Autumn of 1943 [cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/80/a3894780.shtml|title=Recollections of World War Two: 1939 - 1945: Part II|date=2005-04-14|isbn=1850430438|author=David Boe] .In 1946, the Haganah, the pre-state Zionist military, had a training camp near Rovigo [cite book |url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0HhESj_zScIC|title=North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria|date=1997|isbn=0814750729|author=Michael M. Laskier] .

On June 4, 1957 Edouard Samson, president of the délégation spéciale or mayor of Rovigo, was arrested in the town by the DST for collusion with the FLN [cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yS0hAAAAMAAJ|title=Histoire militaire de la guerre d'Algérie |date=1982|isbn=2226013873|author=Henri Le Mire] .

Famous people who were born in Rovigo include two liberal pied noir writers, Jules Roy (born there in 1907 [cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ky8_AAAAIAAJ|title=French Novelists of Today |date=1967|author=Henri Peyre] [cite news |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506EED81331F932A15755C0A9669C8B63|title=Jules Roy, Algerian-Born French Writer, Dies at 92|date=2000-06-21|work=New York Times|author=Alan Riding] ) and
Jean Pélégri (born there in 1920 [cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=JaSALPJH0SgC|title=Images of the Algerian War: French Fiction and Film, 1954-1992|date=1994|isbn=0198158750|author=Philip Dine] ). The grave of Roy's mother is at the village of Sidi Moussa, about eight kilometres north of Bougara, which is where Roy was reared, on his maternal grand-parents' farm.

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