Tetouan or the meeting paint of hispano-moresque art
With its fountains murmuring in patios, its Andalusian gardens and its arcades, Tetouan is a charming town.
Crenulated ramparts, striking minarets, white town walls and verdant gardens, set against the distant ochre backcloth of the Rif Mountains; you do not need to look elsewhere for the centre of hispano-moresque architecture, born of two cultures.
From morning to night, it is humming with the activity of a capital city : a labyrinth of stalls, a motley crowd : it is a centre to which people from the valleys keep converging in order to sell and buy everything there and not even the slightest deal is made without hesitation, dilemma and discussion.
There is much chatter. In the evenings, people gather together by the hundred, men sitting around innumerable small square wooden tables which are set up even on the roadway; the women crowd together on benches decorated with. ‘zelliges » on the garden banks.
This is the time for the tourist, indiscreet by nature, to observe these women from the Rif so strangely dressed, done up in their striped fouta (towel), with a blanket around their hips; their feet and shins are bound with leggings of wool and leather to protect them against the stubble and thistles. Under their large hats, their faces stay fresh and pink. The slightest thing makes them smile mischievously.
The medina is ageless. It is the same maze of tiny streets,archways, tiny squares and foundouks » that exists in many other towns, but here there reigns a particular bustle and gaiety. It is a combination of many things: the bluish rough-cast walls, the gushing. fountains; the painted windows and doors, decorated with simple pure geometrical motifs, the smiling people, the laughing children and that picturesque wandering drinks’ seller who fills his barrow with flowers and green grass in order to keep his jars cool. There are various parts of this pleasant town where we are glad to linger: the tiny shady Ousaa square., the dyers’ quarters, the tirismiths and the stalls of skilfull leather craftsmen who make objects decorated with interwoven multi-coloured leather strips, a Tetouan speciality.
The Khalifa’s palace, former residence of the Sultan’s representative, during the Spanish occupation, is a fine example of princely architecture and of hispano-moresque ornamentation, a style both pompous and refined whose delicate detail and strict geometry cause one to forget an apparently exaggerated decor. A composition of Seville stone-work and Moroccan’zelliges » forms characteristic combinations. The main patio is shaded by a fine garden.
The Archaeological Museum is to be visited too, at the bottom of a pleasant garden where amphoras, steles and antique mosaics are assembled. The three Graces welcome the visitor from a large mosaic brought back from Lixus. Other mosaics and numerous objects originating from the Phenician and Roman city are exhibited in a special room. Another room is devoted to the excavation from Tamuda a Punic conglomeration, which stood on the site of Tetouan, of which remains of walls and many other debris can be recognised on the right bank of the Martil river, four kilometers upstream from the town.
Another museum that is worth an attentive visit is the Museum of Moroccan Art. Of all art collections that can be seen on this the me in the main towns qf Morocco, the collections in this museum are no doubt the most complete, the most intelligently presented and to be sure, the most enthusiastically and sensibly commented. All the prodigious folklore from the North of the country is evoked here without overloading. The visitor will not get bored as he will go from costumes to furniture, from a painted wooden door to an admirable collection of glazed dishes, painted in the shades of yellow, green and pastel blue that are no longer to be found. Specimens of the simplest utensils can be seen there, as well as very refined trinkets and jewelry.
Of course, music holds all important place here; Tetouan prides itself as being the guardian of the pure tradition of Andalusian music.
A conservatoire of music has achieved an important feat in restoring and teaching this art.
Let us not forget that this is a city of literacy and culture where scholars and intellectuals feel at home. Politeness and good manners are dominant elements in the life of the people of Tetouan.
The town itself is enhanced by a mass of greenery. This is less obvious when approaching it from the Tangier road, where we are struck by the size of this completely white town and its position in a hollow between stark mountain-faces. On the other hand, the scene is fresh and full of light for those who arrive in the morning from the east: cypress-trees, eucalyptus trees, orange-trees. almond trees enclose the dazzling white cubes which rise in tears from the foot of the cliffs and to the mighty Kasbah.