Moroccan architecture is an eclectic, even cosmopolitan cultural blend that reflects its long and rich history. Morocco’s indigenous people are the Berbers, who farmed the land from at least 2000 BC. Subsequent rulers and invaders included Arabians, the Spanish, the Portuguese and, in recent, colonial times, French occupiers. (Morocco was declared a French protectorate in 1912, the same year as Matisse’s visit.) In the Moroccan cities, the medina, or old city, sits alongside the boulevards of the adjacent French-style towns, built by the colonisers as part of development efforts in the earlier twentieth century.
The oldest architecture in Morocco includes ancient fortified citadels (kasbahs) and villages (ksars), mostly located in and around the Atlas Mountains. These are of a style dubbed ‘Southern Kasbah’. Made of sun-dried brick, these towering forts, many later turned into palaces, boast simple lines. Despite their massiveness, they still seem to blend seamlessly with their environments. Though many are now ruined, some have found new life as film sets for Hollywood movies. The romance of the kasbah was immortalised in the famous 1942 film set in Morocco’s largest city: Casablanca.
Moroccan Islamic architecture, incorporating elements of African traditional buildings and materials, arose after Islam spread across North Africa in the later 7th century AD. The dominant Moroccan architectural style, Hispano-Moorish, dates to around the eleventh century AD, when the indigenous Berber peoples, who had adopted Islam after the Arab conquest, came to power. Berber dynasties would rule Morocco and large parts of Spain for the next four centuries. The Hispano-Moorish architectural style originated in Spain (in Andalusia), and was taken across the Straits of Gibraltar to Morocco at the behest of the ruling Berber Almoravid dynasty. The Almoravids sent Spanish artisans to Morocco, where they introduced the graceful arches and lofty domes that, along with white walls and green stucco roofs, have become hallmarks of the Hispano-Moorish style.
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