Do you really know Casablanca? Admittedly, the business capital of the country has the reputation of being a monster: hellish traffic, insecurity, lack of cleanliness and lack of greenery, and one has to walk its streets on a Sunday morning ideally for the city to reveal all it has to offer.
This is the “urban adventure” to which the Casamémoire association invites visitors from April 7 to April 8, 2023. “Heritage nights” will start at 9 p.m. during these two days of strolls and discoveries. A dive into the architectural history of a city designed at the beginning of the 20th century by the French Marshal Hubert Lyautey and his architects. An open-air museum with notably ‘‘Art Deco’’ buildings on Boulevard Mohammed V. The walls contain part of the history of Morocco for the most curious visitors. The “Heritage Days” are scheduled from May 26 to 28, 2023. The first day of this twelfth edition, a Friday, will be devoted to guided tours for the benefit of students.
The weekend will be reserved for the general public. “The people of Casablanca will visit their most iconic monuments for free and freely”, said the president of Casamémoire, Mrs. Rabia El Ridaoui. In the Habous district, built between 1918 and 1950, the Pacha’s Mahkama (Pacha’s Court) opens its doors to you, but not for a trial! The current headquarters of the Casablanca-Settat Regional Council were originally a court and a reception space for the Pasha, a project undertaken by architect Auguste Cadet at the end of the First World War and during the Second which followed, and which constitutes a flamboyant synthesis of artisanal Morocco and of its materials, namely hard stone from Benslimane and Bouskoura, zellige from Fez, cedar from the Atlas mountains, and plaster from Safi: the Habous district is one of the five circuits offered to the public: Mohammed V Square and Boulevard, the old Medina... There is also the legendary Hay Mohammadi district best known for being a breeding ground for artists like the veteran singers and musicians of the Nass El Ghiwane band (born in the 1970s) or for the younger generation like Barry. This district is on the other hand less known for having been the receptacle of ‘‘the invention of housing for the greatest number’’ in the 1950s by the French architect and urban planner Michel Écochard. This type of housing is the ancestor of the current «Frankensteinian» low-income housing.
Gravedigger of history
An "error" had convinced him to delve into the history of Casablanca. "I had heard a pseudo-guide say 'His court, on the Mohammed V square, was built by the Ottomans!!!", Brahim Himmich told the public who was present at the end of January 2023 on the occasion of the preparations for the "Heritage Days".
The senior citizen found himself witness to a scene where a pseudo-guide “reinvented” the history of the white city for amazed tourists. That day, Marshal Lyautey and his architects were robbed of their work. Our witness, himself a retired tourist guide, has become a memory torchbearer. "I have read practically all the books written on Casablanca in the nineteenth century", confides the man who is now one of the reference guides of the Casamémoire association, with a predilection for the Habous district. The anecdote of our speaker is an acknowledgment of the ignorance in which many of our fellow citizens are immersed. Nothing is lost, however. The inhabitants of Casablanca responded to the call of Casamémoire. The association will train mediator guides for the Heritage Days scheduled for May 26 to May 28, 2023.
Faiçal FAQUIHI
