24/7 online reservation service
The Portuguese fortification of Mazagan, now part of city of El Jadida, 90-km southwest of Casablanca, was constructed as a fortified colony on the Atlantic coast inside the early 16th century. It was taken over by the Moroccans in 1769. The fortification with its bastions and ramparts is an early instance of Renaissance navy design. The surviving Portuguese buildings embody the cistern and the Church of the Assumption, constructed within the Manueline model of late Gothic structure. The Portuguese Metropolis of Mazagan - certainly one of many early settlements of the Portuguese explorers in West Africa on the path to India - is a formidable occasion of the interchange of influences between European and Moroccan cultures, correctly mirrored in construction, know-how, and metropolis planning.