By Aya Nader, BECAUSE In 2012, the civil group Save Alex took a stand in the streets of Alexandria, calling to save the Cicurel Villa in the ancient city’s Rushdy district. The group’s work resulted in a law that should have protected the building. But last week, the villa built by a Jewish-Turkish merchant in the 1930s was knocked down anyway. Since its foundation in 331 BC, each era has left its beautiful print on Alexandria’s architecture. The city’s streets are lined with Greek, Roman, English and Italian works of art. But these villas and palaces are now being demolished, taking away from Alexandria’s history, one after the other. The 1920s Modernist Agion Villa used to draw French, Italian and other foreign tourists to marvel at and study it. Brought down three months ago, the villa is to be replaced by a touristic residential tower. A few days after the Cicurel Villa incident, the much-loved Al-Salam Theatre, was also bulldozed for a TOLIP franchise hotel. “One of the most bizarre self-defeating trends in Alexandria is the idea that you can destroy historical buildings so you can build … hotels in their place. If…
