Capital of Morocco for more than 400 years, home of the oldest university of the country and the leading cultural and religious centre.
View and book hotels in Fes. Click here.
Fez is also the home of the
oldest and largest medieval city in the world, a city that is almost unchanged through modern ages and still most definitely alive.
Fez was founded in 789 at a place between the mountains where the river was flushing by.
History has provided the city with long periods of hardship, but
Fez has never died. Today it has its own culture, pride, art and even cuisine.
The Bali, or the oldest quarters of
Fez, was to a large degree saved by the French general Lyautey.
When the French got control of
Morocco around the time of
World War I, he made all necessary arrangements to protect the medieval structures against the modern development. The result is that
Fez el Bali has taken good care of its old architectural structures and is also very much a living city, where most streets are too narrow for cars and donkeys and mules are in common use.
Just like all through its history,
Fez el Bali has a striking combination of poverty and developed culture. Nothing appears to have changed for centuries here in
Fez donkeys and mules are still the preferred vehicle between house walls that were erected long before the first European Christian came to visit.
Kairouine Mosque has been the centre of
Islamic learning in Morocco for more than 1000 years, but its real growth to importance came in the 10th and 12th centuries, when most of its structures were added to the rather modest original structures.
As a mosque it is rather unusual. Its large quarters have since long grown together with the rest of
Fez, and unless you enter it, it is therefore almost impossible to get a grip of its real size. Fortunately there are sometimes doors open that allow non-Muslims to look inside, so that they can at least make a guess.
Around the
Kairouine Mosque, there are many madrasas Islamic schools. The most famous of them is the
Attarin, right up the main street. It was built in the
early 14th century, and excels in a beautiful bronze door and an elegant courtyard. The school has numerous examples of excellent detail work, in marble, alabaster and cedar wood.
