El Jadida
El Jadida is a stylish and beautiful town, retaining the lanes and ramparts of an old Portuguese Medina. It was known as Mazagan under the Portuguese who held it from 1506 until 1769, when it was taken by Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah. Moroccan Mazagan was renamed El Jadida – "The New" – after being resettled, partly with Jews from Azemmour, by the nineteenth-century Sultan Abd Er Rahman. Under the French, it grew into a quite sizeable administrative centre and a popular beach resort.
Today it's the beach that is undeniably the focal point. The Plan Azur Resort, Mazagan, will be sited nearby. Moroccans from Casablanca and Marrakesh, even Tangier or Fes, come here in droves in summer, and, alongside this mix, there's an unusual feeling of openness. The bars are crowded (a rare feature in itself), there's an almost frenetic evening promenade and – as in Casa – Moroccan women are visible and active participants.
The Portuguese fortification of Mazagan, now part of the city of El Jadida, approx 90-km southwest of Casablanca, was built as a fortified colony on the Atlantic coast in the early 16th century. It was taken over by the Moroccans in 1769. The fortification with its bastions and ramparts is an early example of Renaissance military design and is now a protected UNESCO site.
The surviving Portuguese buildings include the cistern and the Church of the Assumption, built in the Manueline style of late Gothic architecture.
The Portuguese City of Mazagan -one of the early settlements of the Portuguese explorers in West Africa on the route to India - is an outstanding example of the interchange of influences between European and Moroccan cultures, well reflected in architecture, technology, and town planning.
During the summer months, city-dwellers from Casablanca and Marrakech flock to its 16km stretch of sandy beach that is, for many people, the focal point of El Jadida. Lined by an elegant promenade, and dotted with lively cafes, the beach lunges far into the distance, ever becoming less populated until one meets the dunes and a forested nature reserve.
About 15 miles south of the city there is a string of lagoons with wetlands where you can see dozens of varieties of migrating birds.
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