Bougara

{{Infobox settlement

|official_name = Bougara

|other_name =

|native_name = بوقرہ

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|settlement_type =Commune and town

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|subdivision_type = Country

|subdivision_name ={{flag|Algeria}}

|subdivision_type1 = Province

|subdivision_name1 =Blida Province

|subdivision_type2 = District

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|population_as_of = 2008{{cite web |url=https://www.citypopulation.de/Algeria-Cities.html |title=Algeria: Provinces & Major Cities - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts |website=City Population}}

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|population_total = 38,352

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|timezone = CET

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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. In 1998 it had a population of 34,100.{{Cite web |url=http://www.populstat.info/Africa/algeriat.htm |title=populstat.info |access-date=2009-06-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303175036/http://www.populstat.info/Africa/algeriat.htm |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead }}

Previously, under French rule, it was called Rovigo; it can be found with this name on [https://web.archive.org/web/20070211144243/http://mitidja.free.fr/cartes/algerie-62/b2.jpg this 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=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1c-J_IfSEQC|title=Imperial Identities: Stereotyping, Prejudice and Race in Colonial Algeria|year=1995|isbn=1-85043-043-8|author=Patricia M. E. Lorcin|author-link=Patricia M. E. Lorcin}}{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x_-5XTVKW08C|title=Algeria, 1830-2000: A Short History |year=2001|isbn=0-8014-8916-4|author=Benjamin Stora|author-link=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 [https://web.archive.org/web/20080301180306/http://www.abcdelacpa.com/algerie_rovigo.html here].

There are the saline thermal springs at Hammam-Mélouane, eight kilometers south-west of the town.{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/earthanditsinha02reclgoog|title=The Earth and Its Inhabitants (vol. 11)|publisher=D. Appleton|year=1893|author=Élisée Reclus|author-link=Élisée Reclus}} An old postcard showing the baths complex can be seen [https://web.archive.org/web/20110707073736/http://www.abcdelacpa.com/12918.jpg here].

British Army troops were billeted on French-owned farms outside Bougara 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=1-85043-043-8|author=David Boe|author-link=David Boe (Nottingham)|access-date=2008-03-15|archive-date=2011-02-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110212003607/http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/80/a3894780.shtml|url-status=dead}}

In 1946, the Haganah, the pre-state Zionist military, had a training camp near Bougara.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0HhESj_zScIC|title=North African Jewry in the Twentieth Century: The Jews of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria|year=1997|isbn=0-8147-5072-9|author=Michael M. Laskier|author-link=Michael M. Laskier}}

On June 4, 1957 Someone, president of the délégation spéciale or mayor of Bougara, was arrested in the town by the DST for collusion with the FLN.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yS0hAAAAMAAJ|title=Histoire militaire de la guerre d'Algérie |year=1982|isbn=2-226-01387-3|author=Henri Le Mire|author-link=Henri Le Mire}}

Famous people who were born in Bougara include two liberal pied noir writers, Jules Roy (born there in 1907{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/frenchnovelistso00peyr|url-access=registration|title=French Novelists of Today |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1967|author=Henri Peyre|author-link=Henri Peyre}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/21/books/jules-roy-algerian-born-french-writer-dies-at-92.html|title=Jules Roy, Algerian-Born French Writer, Dies at 92|date=2000-06-21|work=The New York Times|author=Alan Riding|author-link=Alan Riding}}) and

Jean Pélégri (born there in 1920{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JaSALPJH0SgC|title=Images of the Algerian War: French Fiction and Film, 1954-1992|year=1994|isbn=0-19-815875-0|author=Philip Dine|author-link=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 grandparents' farm.