Dar Batha Museum

Dar Batha was built as a summer palace for Sultan Hassan I and finished under his successor in the 1890s, in a Hispano-Moorish idiom with rooms round a large Andalusian garden of orange, jacaranda and a great Barbary oak, and it became a museum in 1915. The strength of the collection is ceramic: Fes blue-and-white, the cobalt-on-white ware the city produced from the seventeenth century, in the largest and best-documented holding anywhere, along with Fes polychrome and pieces showing the technical and stylistic sequence. There are also carpets, carved cedar architectural fragments taken from buildings that could not be saved, astrolabes, embroidery and Amazigh jewellery. The garden is used for concerts during the Festival of World Sacred Music. The museum has been under restoration in periods recently and parts have been closed, so it is worth checking.

What you actually see

• Fes blue-and-white - the best and best-documented collection of the city's cobalt ware.
• An 1890s palace - built as a summer residence for Hassan I, museum since 1915.
• Architectural fragments - carved cedar rescued from buildings that were lost.
• An Andalusian garden - orange and jacaranda round the courtyards, used for concerts.

When to go

October to April. Two hours. Check what is open after recent restoration work.

Honest expectations

Parts have been closed for restoration in recent years. Labelling is in Arabic and French. Entry is charged. The garden is the best part and can be busy during the June festival.

Nearby

Bab Boujloud and the medina are east; the Talaa Kebira runs from there.