Tétouan

The site was settled long before the present city: Tamuda, a Mauretanian town on the river below, was taken over and garrisoned by Rome. A medieval Tétouan grew nearby and was destroyed by the Castilians in 1399, in retaliation for the piracy run from it. The city that stands today was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century by Ali al-Mandri, a captain from Granada, and filled by Muslims and Jews expelled from Spain, who brought Andalusian crafts, cooking, music and building with them. Its name is usually explained as the plural of an Amazigh word for "eye" or "water source".

For the next three centuries Tétouan was a walled trading and corsair port linked to the Mediterranean through its river mouth, with a merchant class, a large Jewish quarter and close ties to Gibraltar and Spain. Spanish forces took the city in 1860, in the war declared the year before, and held it until 1862, and the city was one of the first in Morocco to acquire European schools, printing and consulates.

In 1913 Tétouan became the capital of the Spanish protectorate in northern Morocco, and a new town of avenues, apartment blocks and government buildings was laid out beside the medina in a style mixing Art Deco with Moorish revival. Spanish institutions — the craft school, the archaeological museum, the fine arts institute — date from those decades, and the northern zone was administered from here. After independence in 1956 the administration moved to Rabat and the city lost its capital status and much of its economy. Its medina was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, and restoration work has continued since.

Tétouan calls itself the daughter of Granada, and the Andalusian inheritance is the core of its identity. Old families trace their descent from the refugees of 1492, keep Andalusian surnames, and maintain a formal, ceremonious manner that Moroccans elsewhere notice. Al-Ala, the Andalusian classical music of Morocco, is performed by orchestras in the city, and its embroidery, wood carving and zellige work are taught at the craft school founded under the protectorate.

The Spanish layer is the second. Spanish is spoken by many older residents and understood by most, television from across the strait is watched, and Spanish words have entered the local dialect. The fine arts institute in the new town, another protectorate foundation, has trained generations of Moroccan painters and has made Tétouan unusually strong in modern art and, more recently, in comic and mural work.

Around the city, the Jbala people of the western Rif bring their own culture to the markets — a rural Arabic dialect, sung poetry, and the striped cloth wrap and tasselled straw hat worn by women from the hills. The city is religious and reasonably conservative, and the Jewish quarter inside the walls is a reminder of a community large enough for the city to be called Little Jerusalem, that has almost entirely left.

About 470,000 people live in Tétouan, and the built-up area continues along the coast towards Martil and M'diq, which have grown fast as holiday and commuter towns. The medina still houses families as well as workshops, while most new building has gone up on the slopes above the city and along the roads to the sea.

The economy rests on administration, education, fishing, farming on the coastal plain, and construction driven by seasonal tourism; the university and the arts institutes bring a large student population. Cross-border trade with Ceuta, long a mainstay for towns such as Fnideq, has contracted in recent years and pushed many families towards work elsewhere. Unemployment is high among young people, and emigration to Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands is long established, with remittances and summer returns woven into family life.

Daily rhythms are Mediterranean and unhurried: early mornings, a long midday break, and evenings spent walking on Place Hassan II or along the avenues of the new town. In July and August the whole city moves towards the beach in the late afternoon. Water supply after years of poor rainfall, and the pressure of coastal building, are among the recurring local concerns.

Tétouan's cooking is the most Andalusian in Morocco. Its kitchens are known for refined dishes brought from Spain five centuries ago: chicken with almonds and cinnamon, lamb tagines with quince or prunes, and stuffed pastries in thin warqa pastry. Family cooking is elaborate at weddings and feasts, with saffron, orange flower water and almonds used generously.

The sea is close, so grilled sardines, sole and squid and fish tagines with potatoes and peppers appear everywhere, especially in the harbour restaurants at M'diq. Everyday food is simpler: bissara, the thick fava-bean soup dressed with olive oil and cumin, is the northern breakfast; harira soup, brochettes and kefta sandwiches fill the medina's small counters; and jben, fresh white cheese from the Jbala hills, is sold in the markets with honey and olives.

The city's pastry shops are its pride, selling almond-filled sweets, ghriba biscuits, and chebakia fried in honey and sesame during Ramadan. Mint tea is poured at every visit, and coffee is drunk in the arcaded cafés of the new town, often as nous-nous, half coffee and half milk. Figs, prickly pears and mountain honey come down from the Rif in season.