The article refers to the difficult and complex history of the colonial and postcolonial times of Oran, a city in western Algeria, located on the Mediterranean Sea. A spatial and temporal perspective captures the nature of heritage creation and its role in reading the past, grappling with the present and imagining the future. The spatial and temporal inseparability, as well as the socio-cultural link between past and present, is clearly evident in the case of Oran.