Destination: Chefchaouen
Welcome to Destination: History, where we tackle interesting and fascinating places and take a stroll through the history behind them.
Our destination for today takes us to Morocco where we visit and walk through a most enticing medina. Its distinct colour scheme will have you pulling out the camera for the ultimate Instagram pic.
Join me as we take a look at today’s destination: Chefchaouen.
History of the town
Chefchaouen, which can occasionally go by ‘Chaouen’, is a small town in Morocco with a pretty cool history. Commonly referred to as ‘Morocco’s Blue Pearl city’, the town is known for its beautiful colour scheme where all the walls are painted all the colours of blue you can imagine.
The town is towards the top tip of Morocco, not too far from Tangier, in amongst the Rif Mountains. With gorgeous architecture and amazing views, the small town has an even smaller medina that carries that Moroccan country charm.
Even though the town is in a difficult to access spot, it certainly held its own on the trading route between Tetuan and Fez, especially when those pesky Portuguese were roaming around.
It’s because of the spot in which the town sits that has allowed it to have such a unique history and offers visitors unique experiences.
It was Moulay Ali Ben Moussa who is said to have founded the town in 1471. He was a local leader and legend says that he was descended from Idriss I, which many believe to have started the first Moroccan dynasty, which means that Moussa would have been a possible descendent of Muhammad, the Muslim prophet.
So supposedly the original purpose of the town was as a defence post against the invading Portuguese. Chefchaouen was initially intended as a fortress that would allow the Moroccans to fight for their land.
The fortress is now referred to as the Kasbah, and we’ll talk a little more about this a little later on.
So Portugal was invading Morocco, attacking both the modern cities and the smaller towns. They had started heading down into Northern Africa after the Spanish Inquisition, or ‘Reconquista’ if you’re from Portugal, which was basically anytime from the 8th to the 14th centuries when Spanish Christians were deeply opposed to every other religion, mainly Muslims. And unfortunately for Morocco a large population was Muslim.
The Portuguese were intent on expansion and why not, Spain had done it and Brazil would end up turning out pretty well. Not to mention Morocco had great resources, the Portuguese were able to gain control of their trade routes which included sugar, grain, cattle, fish and even honey.
While the cities around it started to fall to Portugal, namely Ceuta and Tangier, Chefchaoeun was fortunate enough to remain strong and ended up being, in many ways, one of the last fortresses in the mountain region in Morocco.
As the threat from Portugal eventually receded, a settlement, including a medina, started to grow around the fortress. It was made up of homes and other buildings that make up a medina surrounded by a wall to keep everyone safe. It was a mix of local tribes, Moors who had come down from Spain and Jews who first populated the area in the Middle Ages. And as more people turned up, with Muslim and Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, Chefchaouen only grew. The period was actually known as the ‘Expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal’ which was happening around the 1490s. And it was this influx of people that actually gave Chefchaouen strength in numbers, coupled with its perfect location, to keep the invading Portuguese back.
When Spain expelled its population of those observing the Jewish faith in 1492, a majority of them fled to the Middle East but a small portion stopped in Morocco and liked it so much they decided to stay.
As Spain pretty much cleared out anyone they weren’t 100% sure about throughout the 15th and 17th centuries, Chefchaouen continued to grow with the new arrivals.
Towards the end of the 19th century Westerners started to arrive to see what all the fuss was about. Charles Foucauld, a French explorer, gained access to the city pretending to be a rabbi, Walter Harris, an English journalist, also disguised himself as a local to pop into the medina. And William Summer, an American missionary, turned up to do missionary stuff I guess. He didn’t get very far though, because he was reportedly poisoned and ended up dying in the town.
As 1920 came around, Spain finally managed what Portugal could not and seized the town making it apart of Spanish Morocco. The reason the westerners had to disguise themselves in order to enter the town was because up until when the Spanish took control, the whole place was closed to all non-Muslims and foreigners, especially those pesky Christians who had forced many to flee their homes in the first place. It was a safe haven for those religions that had been vilified by Christianity. But now that the Spanish was sitting around they were letting anyone and everyone in, and I suppose to a certain extent this saved a fair few lives. As the Second World War geared up throughout Europe, Chefchaouen became a haven once again for Jews fleeing persecution.
Despite a couple of squabbles, the Spanish pretty much remained in control for the most part until 1956 when along came modern Morocco’s hero, Mohammed V. A Revolution was led against the ruling Spanish Empire and out of it came an independent Morocco. In 1956 Morocco was finally able to declare its independence from those pesky Europeans, and with Mohammed V made King of an independent Morocco in the following year, things were starting to look up.
Because of its population being made up primarily of fleeing religious refugees, Chefchaouen has 12 mosques and has been heavily influenced by European architecture. This makes it stand out amongst the other Moroccan towns and cities, like the fact that most of the houses have round tiles which aren’t really seen in Morocco and are more at home in Southern Europe.
It’s this European influence and the picturesque spot in which the town finds itself that has made Chefchaouen such a lovely spot for tourists. And having the whole centre of town painted blue really doesn’t hurt.
Chefchaouen, the town
Even though Chefchaouen can be a little difficult to get to, because it is literally in the middle of the mountains, many say it is definitely worth the effort. The town itself isn’t actually that big and you can easily walk around it and see the sights in a day.
The town is pretty much maze-like, its streets are small and because all the exterior walls of the buildings are the same colour, you can get turned around pretty quick if you’re not careful. Like for instance, the doors as well as the walls are painted blue, so you can easily miss an entrance into a shop or a home as it all blends into the wall.
For a non-big city, the shops are eclectic in their range and many of the bazaars spill out onto the streets with local crafts and souvenirs.
The mosques and museums deserve a definite visit if you’re a tourist in Chefchaouen. The Grand Mosque can be found in the medina, the old part of the town. The Grand Mosque was built not too long after the town itself had been founded and has been attributed to Moulay Ali Ben Moussa, the town’s founder.
Because the Grand Mosque is not the only mosque in the town, it’s been known to be used for meetings of local leaders and town meetings. So the Grand Mosque can be more than just a religious learning experience, it has its own history associated with it.
A second mosque, known as the Spanish Mosque of Chefchaouen, was built by the Spanish in the 1920s, but unsurprisingly it was never used. So it just sits on a hill looking over the city.
But if mosques aren’t your thing, fair enough, but you really can’t go to Chefchaouen and not check out its ethnographical museum, the Kasbah Museum. Located in the historic part of the town, or the original fortress, the museum is an absolutely gorgeous building and could be considered its most famous.
The museum was built by Pasha Ahmed Errifi with the vision that it would protect and display the town’s unique culture and history. The stuff you can see in the museum include:
popular art, sculptures, objects realised in wood, leather and stone, pots, traditional clothes, nuptial boxes, ancient weapons of this region of Morocco that were important in [Pasha Ahmed Errifi’s] moment.
The museum is clearly meant to display the unique Moroccan culture, the craftsmanship and the skills and history of the country and the town’s past.
The original Kasbah, the fortress, is still there and is a part of the museum. It was Chefchaouen’s first defensive wall and has been described as a:
walled enclosure…designed, with military purposes and spaces designed to house the emir and his family, subjects, soldiers and prisoners.
So back in the day, it was a pretty important part of being swallowed up by the Portuguese. And as the town grew, so did the Kasbah. It has expanded to include a gorgeous interior garden that you can visit as a tourist, which reportedly includes:
A central pond, with towers and other elements surrounding them and flanking the walls.
So by visiting the Kasbah, you’ll definitely get a good sense of Chefcahouen’s journey through history and see how the whole place started out.
Not only is there cool historical buildings to marvel at, there are some pretty cool natural stuff to look at too. With plenty of hiking trails you can’t really go wrong. You can even hike up to the tallest peak in the Rif Mountains. You get a pretty amazing view of the town from way up there, although it’s not for the faint of heart, the whole thing takes about 9 hours so if you’re going to do it you need to be prepared.
The Talassentane National Park was created to protect the fir trees, an endangered species, that grow in Morocco. But this national park, like so many others, isn’t just about the engendered trees, it’s got waterfalls, cascading rivers and gorgeous views to explore as well. A definite stop is what’s known as ‘God’s Bridge’, it’s a stone arch that was carved from the rocks through natural erosion. It looks so magnificent that none other than the God’s could have created it, hence the name.
And we’re not done yet, there are also some caves that those who feel so inclined can explore. Even though they haven’t been fully explored and mapped, it’s believed that there are about 1000 caves that can be found in the Rif Mountains, and they’re mainly made up of soft minerals like limestone and dolomite. The caves are believed to have been formed by the solubility of the stones due to the extensive rainfall each year, which in turn allows the caves to become so deep. If you only want to check out one of the caves then you can’t go past Kef Toghobeit, it’s the deepest cave in Morocco and apparently the third deepest in all of Africa.
Now if you’re just in Chefchaouen for the Instagram worthy pictures then the medina is where you want to be. This old part of the city is the only part that is painted blue and has become known as:
the most Instagrammable city you’ve never heard of.
But it seems more and more people are hearing about it. The number of photos on Instagram that are being tagged in Chefchaouen are continuously growing, and just before the pandemic they managed to nearly double, going from 250 000 to 445 000. For the inhabitants of the medina the extra tourism has been a god send and has allowed tourism businesses to be created, providing stability and steady jobs.
So you can head on over to Chefchaouen for a day trip from Fez or Tangier and unlike it’s bigger city siblings, like Marakech, Chefchaouen still retains some of that small-town charm.
Why it’s blue
Chefchaouen is famous for its blue walls, something that no other Moroccan town has thought to do. But why are the walls blue? What is the reason behind it? Despite history telling us that originally the walls were white, there are several theories floating around about why and when the blue was introduced.
According to Jewish belief the colour blue is representative of the sky, and that make’s sense, the sky is generally a blue colour due to the refraction of light in the atmosphere, the blue colour then reminds them of heaven and God. Therefore the Jewish communities are known to paint things blue such as using blue coloured fabrics, especially for their prayer mats.
The tradition of painting buildings blue…reminded [the villagers] of the sky and the presence of God.
Some believe that when the Jewish refugees fleeing persecution at the hands of the Nazis arrived in Chefchaouen throughout WWII that they were the ones who started the wall painting craze. But others say that it was the Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish Inquisition who started the wall painting craze all the way back in the 15th century.
Regardless of which influx of refugees kicked it off, supposedly until very recently it was the only Jewish part of the medina that was painted blue with the rest of the medina having the traditionally white walls.
Another theory about the reason behind the blue walls is that it’s believed to repel mosquitoes. Some believe that the slightly different shades of blue help with the mosquito levels. Supposedly, mozzies don’t like being in water, even though live near water they don’t actually like being in the water itself. And with the slightly different hues of the blue walls this apparently looks like flowing water to mozzies, making them avoid entering the city essentially keeping them at bay. Although the expansion of the blue walls from the Jewish part into the non-Jewish parts may have been due to non-Jewish residents seeing that there were fewer mozzies flying around the Jewish part and attributed this to the blue walls, and so thinking that maybe it would help with the mozzie population they started painting their homes blue as well.
Some locals think the blue walls are all to do with the heat. Being situated in Africa means that the days get pretty hot. So there is a theory that the shades of blue that make up the medina keep the houses cool. Even if this wasn’t the original reason for the start of the blue wall movement it’s definitely been a reason to keep doing it in the present time.
A couple of other locals think the blue walls are meant to be a reflection of the shades of the Mediterranean Sea. And others still think the blue represents the Ras el-Maa waterfall, which is where the town get their drinking water. Basically it’s this waterfall that allows the town to have fresh, clean drinking water in an otherwise hostile and arid environment. So the blue walls was done in an attempt to remind them of the life-sustaining water that allows them to live in an otherwise inhospitable part of the world.
While this last theory for the blue walls certainly wasn’t the original reason, it has been taken up by quite a few locals recently. Tourism plays such a big part for small regional communities like Chefchaouen and if painting the old part of the city blue means that more tourists will stop by to take pretty pictures and then be forced to buy some lunch and some trinkets to take home with them, then why wouldn’t you paint the front of your house or shop blue. And it really is the blue of the medina that attracts a fair amount of tourists, especially because before people knew about the blue town it was just another unremarkable stop on the trading route between Fez and Tangier.
Regardless of the initial reason for painting the town blue, Chefchaouen is revelling in the benefits from it now. So much so, that I think painting everything in shades of blue will no doubt continue for quite a while, or at least while the tourists still turn up.
Thanks for coming along and discovering the blue walls of Chefchaouen. Don’t forget to add it to your must-see’s when you’re planning your next trip through Morocco.
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Originally published at https://destinationhistorypod.com on November 14, 2021.
