Portuguese City of Mazagan

About this place

A fortified town that the Portuguese built on the Atlantic coast in the early sixteenth century and named Mazagan; today it is the old quarter of El Jadida. UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 2004, as an early example of Renaissance fortifications designed to withstand artillery and as a witness to the interchange between European and Moroccan cultures. The story began with an old tower that already stood here. In 1514 the Portuguese built a rectangular citadel with four towers, and in 1541 they expanded it into a star-shaped fortress whose sloping walls average eight metres in height and about ten metres in thickness, topped by a patrol walkway. The Portuguese stayed until 1769, making it their last stronghold in Morocco; as they left they blew up the Governor's Bastion, and the inhabitants were shipped to Brazil, where they founded Nova Mazagão. The town was later rebuilt and renamed El Jadida, «the New», in 1820. Inside, an old main street is lined with the key buildings, including the Church of the Assumption with its square bell tower, the Portuguese cistern beneath the citadel, and a synagogue from 1926. Old Portuguese cannons still sit on the four bastions, the Angel, Saint Sebastian, Saint Anthony and Holy Ghost, and the Sea Gate still opens onto the water where ships once came in. Wandering the quarter is free, and parts of the ramparts can be walked for views over the port and the ocean. Mornings and the hour before sunset are the best times; two hours covers the quarter and the cistern, followed by lunch at the fish restaurants near the port.