How to get to Tétouan?

Tétouan (63 km/1 hour 20 minutes drive southeast of Tangier, which was our starting point) is located in northern Morocco.

What to do, see and visit in Tétouan?

Tétouan‚s medina, originally known as Titawin, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1997.

In the Islamic period from the 8th century onwards, Tétouan was of special importance as it was located on an important road that connected Andalusia in Spain with the interior of Morocco. In addition to 2 regions, the city thus also connected 2 cultures – Spanish and Arab and 2 parts of the world – European and African.

Ensanche

The bus dropped us off in the Ensanche district (west of the medina). During the Spanish protectorate (1912-1956), the city was rebuilt by refugees who were expelled by the Spanish. This Andalusian influence was manifested in urbanism, architecture and monumental art. Even today, the School of Arts and Crafts (Dar Sanaa) and the National Institute of Fine Arts (Institute National Des Beaux Arts) operate in the city.

Archaeological Museum of Tétouan

The axis of the district is the wide Avenue Mohamed V, which connects Plaza Muley El Mehdi (Primo Rivera) and Place El Mechouar. On the street you will find hotels, shops and restaurants. If you take a short detour north from the boulevard, you will arrive at the Archaeological Museum of Tétouan (Musée Archeologique De Tétouan; 240 meters/3 minutes walk west of Place El Mechouar). Most of the exhibits come from excavations that took place in the 1930s. Here you will explore finds from the archaeological site of Lixus near the city of Larache. Explanations are in Arabic, French and Spanish. The ticket costs 10 mad/1 euro/person.

Royal Palace at Place El Mechouar

The dominant feature of Place El Mechouar is the royal palace in its eastern part. Although part of the square around the palace and the palace itself are closed to the public, there is still a very good view of the palace and the city offers plenty of other places where you can wander. There are 4 pillars in front of the palace. These are light columns in Art Nouveau style, which we assume were designed by Enrique Nieto, a student of Antoni Gaudí.

Opposite the palace there are 2 springs where you can get water. You can recognize the springs thanks to the numerous Moroccan flags that fly in front of them and the carved decorations around them. These represent the Hands of Fatima to ward off the evil eye.

Old Town (Medina)

You enter the old town from the square through the Bab rouah gate. Although the medina is one of the smallest in Morocco, it has been preserved in an almost unchanged form until now. Even today, the Medina is protected by 5 km long walls with 7 gates and fortified towers, the so-called borj, which arose in the 18th century. The strict layout of the medina is characterized by the main and smaller side streets. Main streets connect gates and public buildings, giving access to squares, craft and commercial districts. Smaller streets lead to passageways and semi-private residential areas.

Museum of Religious Heritage

After wandering the medina’s regular network of alleyways, we visited the Museum of Religious Heritage (Musée du patrimoine religieux; 280 meters/4 minutes walk northeast of Place El Mechouar). The four wings of the museum connect around the so-called Moroccan garden. There is a garden inside the building (atrium). In the wings around the garden, you will learn about the religious history of Morocco. In addition to Arabic and French, the explanations were also in English. After the tour, I recommend a glass of mint tea in the square in front of the museum.

Lebbadi House or Lebbadi Palace

The Lebbadi House or Lebbadi Palace (450 meters/5 minutes walk east of Place El Mechouar) was built in 1903. The palace is a typical example of Andalusian-style residential architecture with a central courtyard, columns and arches. They provide temporary accommodation in the house. Upstairs I saw probably the most carpets in one place, while downstairs they sold Moroccan handicrafts.

The owner or operator of the house did not forget to ask me for a tip in the cash register on one floor, and on the next one he asked me just to be sure if I had really contributed.

Dar El Oddi

The old family house Dar El Oddi (400 meters/5 minutes walk east of Place El Mechouar) from the 1920s, which fell into disrepair, was converted into a cultural space and inaugurated in 2018. Another house they built in the Andalusian style. You will find a tile with a different pattern on almost every square meter. After the reconstruction, they preserved the original kitchen on the ground floor. The center exhibits maps, pictures, stamps and postcards of Tétouan in the years 1525-1955. The tour allows you to go up to the roof of the house with a large terrace, from which it is just one jump to any other roof of the medina. There is a café and a souvenir shop on the ground floor. The ticket costs 25 mad/2.50 euros/person.

Bab Okla Ethnographic Museum

The Bab Okla Ethnographic Museum (Musée Ethnographique Bab Okla; 550 meters/6 minutes walk east of Place El Mechouar) gets its name from the gate through which you enter the medina from the east. Although the museum was founded in 1928, it is located in the historical fortress, which was built a century earlier (1830-1831). During the tour, you will get to know the city’s history and cultural specifics. The exposition consists of 3 parts:

1. the geography and history of Tétouan from the 15th century through the period of prosperity from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 18th century, the decline in the 18th century to the Spanish period and the modern age in the 19th and 20th centuries,
2. urban planning of the medina and its architectural elements,
3. the arts and crafts of the medina.

Although in Dar el Oddi we were welcomed on the roof with a terrace, in the ethnographic museum entry to the roof was strictly prohibited. And it’s such a shame when from the roof you can see the Mediterranean Sea on one side and the mighty peaks of the Rif Mountains on the other. The ticket costs 20 mad/2 euros/person.

Tannery

When you hear Morocco, (almost) everyone immediately thinks of Fez and its square full of vats filled to the top with water, each a different color. Tétouan also has its own „tannery“ (450 meters/6 minutes walk north of Place El Mechouar). It is smaller, but still. Unfortunately, we did not visit the tannery, but I heard that the stench that reigns there during the processing of leather, I cannot even imagine. There is a market near the tannery where you can buy these leather products.

After visiting the city of Tétouan …

I confess that after visiting Tétouan I had to google why it is in UNESCO. No one told us this during the tour of the city and its museums. Tétouan is not an ugly city and neither is its medina. In Morocco, however, we visited the medinas, which I personally liked much more. The Andalusian style and Moroccan enclosed gardens were amazing and I would definitely visit the site again for them.

Also read these articles from Morocco:

• Morocco before the 1st visit
• Tangier – gateway to Africa
• The archaeological site of Lixus near the city of Larache
• Chefchaouen – 50 shades of blue

The article was created in cooperation with FIJET and FIJET Slovakia.

© Ing. Adam Vanečko

Príspevok Tétouan – Andalusia in Morocco je zobrazený ako prvý na Adam Vanecko Traveller Food & Travel Blog.

How to get to Chefchaouen?

Chefchaouen is located (112 km/2 hours 11 minutes drive southeast of Tangier, which was our starting point) in northern Morocco.

What to do, see and visit in Chefchaouen?

Chefchaouen is known for the blue facades of its houses that squat beneath the wooded hills of the Rif Mountains. Apart from a walk in the old town (medina), the city doesn’t offer much.

Bab El Mahrouk gate

We started the tour north of the medina, from where we could take pictures of part of the city. Unfortunately, it was not the typical view from which you have a blue city in the desert like in the palm of your hand. I mention the more famous one at the end of the article. We entered the medina through the gate (Bab El Mahrouk; 550 m/11 minutes walk north of Place Outa El Hamam). Immediately after entering, we understood why Chefchaouen has the epithet blue city. They painted (almost) all the facades of the houses blue. Despite how popular the city is among visitors, here and there I managed to find an empty street.

Chefchaouen is not located by the sea like the other cities we visited. Therefore, high temperatures prevailed here in the afternoon as well. The narrow streets provided shelter from the scorching sun and the air flowed faster in them.

Bab El Onsar Gate and Ral Elma Park

From the northeast, you can reach the medina through another gate (Bab El Onsar; 500 m/7 minutes walk northeast of Place Outa El Hamam). This gate was also built in the 16th century. It was really busy around the gate. Some tried on Moroccan costumes, in which they were then photographed, artists sold their works here, visitors flocked from all sides. From this gate, it is also the closest to the photogenic Ras Elma park (650 m/9 minutes walk northeast of Place Outa El Hamam). Here, the waterfall springs from under the building that stands above it.

Locals were not as willing to pose here as in other Moroccan cities. Some even asked for small change for the photo.

The water of the Fouara stream gradually flows down the narrow valley below until it passes through the so-called local laundry, a place where householders wash clothes and carpets since time immemorial. At every turn there were stalls with souvenirs and others where they prepared fresh orange juice for you. The blue city on the hill is indeed so photogenic that visitors want to take pictures in every alleyway on every single step. It can feel a bit annoying at times when you are moving from one place to another.

Place Outa El Hamam

The center of the medina is Place Outa El Hamam. In the center of the square there is a fountain with a small pond. Dominating the southern part of the buildings are the fortress (Kasbah), which houses the Ethnographic Museum (Musée Ethnographique de Chefchaouen) and the Grand Mosque (Grand Mosquée), from which the prayer was carried throughout the square. We also ended our city tour in the square with a cup of hot mint tea.

Kasbah and Grand Mosque

The fortress from the 15th century functioned as a prison, today it hosts a small art gallery. Go up to the observation deck of the Portuguese Tower, from which you can see the medina and the surrounding hills. Explanations in the tower are in Arabic, French and Spanish. The ticket costs 60 mad/6 euros/person. The Grand Mosque, like other mosques, is closed to non-Muslims.

La Plaza de sidi Belhassen square

If you enter the alley between the mosque and the fortress, you will find yourself in La Plaza de sidi Belhassen. The square became famous for the wool market. It was an annual market for animal sacrifice until the late 1960s.

Place El Haouta

Only 300 m/5 minutes walk northwest of Place Outa El Hamam is another smaller square, Place El Haouta. Although you won’t find any significant attractions in the square, according to the photos on the Internet, it looks very picturesque.

Bab El Sor and Bab El Ain gates

When leaving the medina, we passed through 2 more gates – Bab El Sor (120 m/1 minute walk west of Place Outa El Hamam) and Bab El Ain (280 m/3 minutes walk west of Place Outa El Hamam). At the second gate, stop for a delicious ice cream.

Spanish Mosque

The mosque (1.3 km/21 minutes walk southeast of Place Outa El Hamam) was built by the Spanish in the 1920s. Although it never served its original purpose, it offers one of the best views of Chefchaouen. All those illustrative photos of the city that you can find on the Internet come from this location.

In conclusion …

I regret that we did not visit several interesting sites in the city of Chefchaouen. The guide more or less „dragged“ us up and down the alleys, as if he didn’t know where he wanted to go.

Opposite the public toilets stands the shop of a Moroccan. I couldn’t believe my eyes, how casually and naturally he told us about the square that is adjacent to his store, about its history and the buildings that stand on it. I just thought to myself: „It’s a shame that this gentleman didn’t accompany us through the city.“ Then the tour would have looked completely different.

Also read these articles from Morocco:

• Morocco before the 1st visit
• Tangier – gateway to Africa
• The archaeological site of Lixus near the city of Larache
• Tétouan – Andalusia in Morocco

The article was created in cooperation with FIJET and FIJET Slovakia.

© Ing. Adam Vanečko

Príspevok Chefchaouen – 50 shades of blue je zobrazený ako prvý na Adam Vanecko Traveller Food & Travel Blog.