Dar el-Bahar

The Portuguese held Safi from 1508 to 1541 and built the Château de la Mer directly on the rocks at the water's edge to cover the anchorage - a compact fortress with a square keep, a bastion, a terrace and a sea gate, in stone rather than the earth used inland. It has been repaired and reused since, including by later Moroccan rulers, and what stands is a mixture of periods on the Portuguese plan. On the terrace is a collection of bronze cannon, several of them Dutch and Spanish pieces of the seventeenth century with founders' marks and coats of arms still legible, acquired by capture or trade. The keep can be climbed and gives the Atlantic on one side and the medina rising behind on the other. It is small, takes an hour, and is the most coherent Portuguese survival in Safi.

What you actually see

• A sea castle on rocks - built from the 1520s directly at the water to cover the anchorage.
• Marked bronze cannon - Dutch and Spanish seventeenth-century pieces on the terrace.
• A climbable keep - the Atlantic one way and the medina rising the other.
• Layered repair - Portuguese plan with later Moroccan work on it.

When to go

Spring and autumn. An hour, combined with the medina above.

Honest expectations

It is small and the visit is short. Entry is charged. Sea spray reaches the terrace in rough weather. The industrial port alongside is unattractive.

Nearby

The Safi medina rises behind it; the pottery hill is above that.