The modern Casablanca was born around 1770, after the earthquake which had destroyed the Portuguese installation of Casa Branca (branco in Portuguese is white). It was invented by the sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah, known as Mohammed III, who christened it Dar el-Beida (in Arab, white house). The Casablanca place name has been imposed by the Spanish merchants who had made it their own trade port. In the XIX century the village slowly becomes a city with a population of 8.000 inhabitants in 1860, 20.000 in 1907, 25.000 in 1912, during the French protectorate. Casablanca lives a period of intense architectonic and demographic development: in 1930 the inhabitants are 106.000; when French people leave, in 1956, they are more than half a million. Then they go up from two millions in 1985 , to three millions in 1995; at present they are more than four millions, suburbs included.

NEW MEDINA

In the South eastern part of the city, at the back of the royal palace and of boulevard Victor Hugo, is the new Medina, which has maintained the name of area of the Habou. The French urbanists planned its construction starting from 1923 in order to integrate the new populations of rural origins who had been concentrated in the southern suburb of the city. With its little squares and little lanes with arcades, Medina represents a successful example of modern adaptation of the traditional characteristics of one medina.

Mahakma of the Pascià. The hard work of construction of this building (marble, stone and wood) began in 1948 and ended four years later. The palace, composed by sixty rooms, had been used, in the same period, as Mussulman court and as reception hall of the Pascià of Casablanca.
Today it is centre of the Islamic legal court. " You can find all the architectonic shapes and the typical decorative themes of the Hispanic-Moresque art ", wrote Jean-Michel Zurfluh, in Casablanca, in 1986.

OLD MEDINA

A very little part of the old Mussulman city still exists: in fact it was destroyed by the earthquake in 1755, and in 1770 the sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah undertook its reconstruction. A long time ago, the Medina was surrounded with bastions which extended until the old souk el-Kebir. It is possible to find some traces around the place Mohammed V. In XIX century, in the Medina, they built houses (at present they have disappeared) in Arab-Mussulman style and in western stylevecchio souk el-Kebir.

THE PORT The entrance is pointed out by the Centre 2000, a small pole of luxury shops and restaurants. The port is the economic heart of Casablanca, the morning soon animated by a famous sale to the spell. The complex, nearly completely built by the Frenchmen at the beginning of the century, has a surface of 180 hectares and 12.000 square metres of docks; it is protected by the jetty Moulay Youssef, 3180 m, equipped for the reception of dangerous goods and hydrocarbons. The port is composed by numerous river basins and shipyards, a tourist port, a marina and by the landing stages of the tourist steamboats. Its main activities consist in the exportation of phosphates, and the importation of metallurgical products, hydrocarbons and lumber. With the port activities of Mohammèdia, it does the 70% of the national shipping business.

Koubba of sidi Beliouth - Constructed at the end of the past century in the north of the ancient medina, the koubba of marabutto Sidi Beliouth, the protecting saint of the city, dominates a small cemetery. The legend says that, disgusted with the mediocrity of men, Sidi Beliouth would have removed his eyes and ended his life in hermitage among the wild beasts of the forest, which took care of his body until his burial. For this reason his nickname is Abou Louyout (father of the lions). Near the sanctuary, there is a miraculous fountain; the legend says that anyone who will drink its water will come back to Casablanca in the future.

The "Sqala" - Just in front of the fishing port,the sqala, a fortified bastion of the XVIII century, points its old guns to the sea. It is one of the rare traces of the reign of Sidi Abdallah. The platform, which is available to the visitors, offers a panoramic seen of the Atlantic ocean.

Sanctuary of Sidi el-Kairouani - Beside rue de Tnaker, the sanctuary accommodates the grave of the first patron of Sidi allal el-Kairouani city and his daughter, Lalla Beida. The legend goes back to the XIV century, it tells that Sidi allal el-Kairouani left Kairouan on a boat in order to reach Senegal, but he was shipwrecked in the open sea, off Casablanca. He was picked up by some fishermen. At the death of his wife, he asked his daughter to reach him. The daughter, too, was shipwrecked and drowned just in front of Casablanca. Sidi allal buried her in front of the the sea and wanted to be buried near his daughter. The name of the sanctuary is Maison La Blanche (House of the White woman), to remember Lalla Beida, famous for the whiteness of her complexion.

THE CORNICHE

Starting from the lighthouse of el-Hank, along the BOULEVARD DE LA CORNICHE, there are a lot of beaches and swimming pools, cafés, hotels, restaurants. The inhabitants of Casablanca love walking there in the evening for some drinks and to breathe the air of the sea. From I955, the Saudi Foundation Ibn Seoud is sheer to the sea and accommodates a mosque, a centre of advanced studies and one most modern library. At the extremity of the Corniche, in the area of the seaside resort Ain Diab, there are the Institute of Talasso-Therapy of Casablanca and the Amusement Park of SINDBAD.


Marabutto of Sidi Ard er-Rahman - On a headland full of rocks, reachable only with the low tide, there are the white graves of people struck by witchcraft or by nervous diseases. Each year, a lot of pilgrims go there in order to have a bath or spend the night.

Anfa - At the back of the Corniche, in the residential area of Anfa, there are the most fabulous villas of the city. In one of those, on the hill, in 1943 there had been the conference of Casablanca, when Churchill and Roosvelt decided the landing of the Army in Normandie and Sicily. The Nazis had been advised of a meeting at the " House Blanca ", but they thought it was the White House in Washington.