Mohammed V Square

When the French began building Casablanca from 1912, the resident-general Hubert Lyautey ordered that the new city be laid out in the European manner but that its public buildings use Moroccan forms - the result, called Mauresque or arabisance, is a hybrid of Beaux-Arts planning with horseshoe arches, zellige, carved plaster and green tile, and Mohammed V square is where it is concentrated. Around it stand the prefecture with its clock tower, the courthouse, the main post office, the Bank of Morocco and the French consulate, all from the 1920s and 1930s and all in that manner. At the centre is a large fountain that plays with music and light in the evenings. The square is the anchor of a walkable circuit of Casablanca's twentieth-century architecture, which extends up the Boulevard Mohammed V and around Place des Nations Unies and is the real reason to spend a day in the city.

History

The square was laid out in 1916 to a design by Henri Prost and Joseph Marrast, with the 18th-century Place Stanislas of Nancy as a model, and became the heart of the new European city. The buildings around it went up in the 1920s and 1930s in the Moorish Revival style, among them the courthouse by Joseph Marrast of 1923 and the Bank Al-Maghrib by Edmond Brion of 1937 (Wikipedia, Mohammed V Square).

What you'll find

• Mauresque public buildings - European planning with Moroccan arches, tile and plaster.
• The 1910s and 1920s core - prefecture, courthouse, post office and bank together.
• A musical fountain - playing with light in the evenings at the centre.
• A walkable circuit - the anchor of Casablanca's twentieth-century architecture route.

When to go

October to April; evenings for the fountain. An hour, or a day for the wider circuit.

Good to know

Most of the buildings are working offices and cannot be entered. Traffic around the square is heavy. Some facades are in poor repair. The fountain runs to a schedule and not continuously.

Nearby

The old medina is north; the Casablanca cathedral is a short walk south-west.

Key facts