Luminous Tangier

« The first contact with Morocco for many, Tangier, situated in a natu¬ral amphitheatre, looks toward Europe. Should one see in the future tunnel under the Straits of Gibraltar a wink to Hercules, who according to the legend was at the origin of Africa’s and Europe’s separation? In Tangier, myths and legends are tur¬ned upside down.
The city owes its name to Tinga, wife of Antee, son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and of Gaia, goddess of the Earth … Then on to the 20′ » century where writers such as Paul Morand, Paul Bowles, Joseph Kessel, Tahar Benjelloun evoked the city or were inspired by it, contributing to the intertwining legend.
Here, nature creates art. Matisse, whose famous window – « View from the Window » – of the Hotel Villa de France still opens upon the bay of Tangier. That exports the myth all the way to Moscow, where the noted canvas is housed. Dream of the Orient for some, pictorial wit¬ness of diplomatic missions (Delacroix, Van Rysselbergh), discoverer of a « fauve » nature for others (Van Dongen), Tangier captures the eye and stimulates writers. Is it its cos¬mopolitanism which charms so many?

The city of diplomats

It was not its sandy beaches, so apprecia¬ted these days, but its exceptional harbor which first attracted the Phoenicians and then the Romans. They made of that city the capital of the Tangier’s Mauritania. The Arab dynasties which succeeded them used the port to launch their conquest of Andalusian Spain. Tangier later knew two centuries of foreign domination as well, Portuguese and Spanish, before being offered as the dowry by Catherine of Braganza to her husband Charles II of England in 1611.
From the end of the 17′ » century, Sultan Moulay Ismail reconquered Tangier and ordered a palace and mosque built. The city’s cosmopolitanism became a reality when the Sultan sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah encouraged the foreign consulates situated in other Moroccan cities to relocate there. His argument cut to the quick. He just offered very beautiful buildings to the European consuls. Tangier thus became a diplomatic capital, counting ten consulates by 183 o. From amongst the countries traditionally represented, we can take note of the United States of America whose inde¬pendence Morocco recognized in 1777. The sultan offered a residence to the American legation which ii would occupy untill961, the date when it left the original building for a more modern one. The old legation is today a museum.

The cosmopolitan city

From 1912 to 1960, Tangier benefited from its status as « an international city ». Fiscal advantages drew businessmen and adventurers of all types. then came the city’s ability to inspire writers who gathered at the cafés of the Little Socco or the Place de France …
Tall buildings whose 1900s style is being soften by Islamic art brighten the Royal Armed Forces
Avenue. Mosques, syna¬gogues, churches – places of worship of all faiths ¬heighten the international atmosphere of that city. The English Saint Andrews Church, identifiable in one of Matisse’s canvas,is a not to-be-missed destina¬tion. It contains an « our Father » prayer written in Arabic calligraphy.
Among other sights, the Gran Teatro Cervantes, built in 1913, was a gift by a Spaniard to his wife. Adorned by volute ceramics in a very turn of the-century fashion _ with an innovative Art Deco style façade … Caruso may not sing mere again, but the theater is in the process of being renovated. The old consulates were des cri¬bed by « Times » correspondent Walter Harris as dream residences. From The Rolling Stones to Elisabeth Taylor, the « guest list » of visitors to this city is impressive. An apt case in point is « The Sheltering Sky », Bernardo Bertollucci’s film adaptation of paul Bowles’s novel.
From the petit Socco, evoked by the writer Mohamed Choukri, in « Le Pain nu » (naked bread), to the colored medina of Tags, without forgetting the Rif’s peasant women wearing the fouta, a white robe with read stripes, the street is a show in itself. Luminous Tangier still exerts its power of seduction. Tangier, between Africa and Europe, Tangier between earth and sea, bet¬ween the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, between green and blue …