Sétif (in Arab: سطيف) is a town of Algérie, chief town of the Wilaya de Sétif. Located at 300 km in the East of Algiers in the area of the Top-Plates ( El Hidhab in Arabic), the city culminates to 1100 m of altitude between the Kabylie and the Aurès. One of the monuments emblematic of the city is the Fontaine of Ain El Fouara (1898) of the Sculpteur French Francis de Saint-Vidal.

In January 2004, Sétif counts 245  000 inhabitants. The wilaya of Sétif counts 60 communes, extends on 6  500 km ², for a population of almost 1,5 million inhabitants, which classifies it with the 2nd rank after the Wilaya of Algiers.

History

At the time Roman, the city is the capital of the Maurétanie sétifienne (Numidie) and bears the name of Colonia Nerviana Augusta Martialis Veteranorum Sitifensium (Sitifis). Sétif preserved some vestiges of IIIe and IVe centuries: ramparts, basilicas, ancient circus.

Sétif is the starting point the May 8th 1945 of a series of nationalist riots repressed in blood by the French colonial authorities. These events cost the life thousands of people (between 10  000 and 45  000, according to the sources) including 103 Europeans (see the article on the massacres of Sétif).

Initially attached to the department of the name of Constantine (93) created in 1848, of which it is a sub-prefecture, Sétif becomes, in 1956 the chief town of the one of the 12 new French Départements of Algeria.

Twinning

• Rennes (France)

Personalities of the city

• Ferhat Abbas
• Rabah Belamri
• Kamel Bencheikh
• Kateb Yacine
• Rachid Bey