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Tétouan is a city in northern Morocco in the Martil valley, a few miles from the Mediterranean and about 60 kilometres east-southeast of Tangier, with an estimated 469,465 inhabitants in 2024. It sits between the Dersa and Ghorghiz mountains, and its whitewashed old town has earned it the nickname of the White Dove.
The first settlement nearby was Tamuda, founded in the 3rd century BC and later a Roman town. The Marinids built a kasbah here in the late 13th century, and after its destruction the city was rebuilt in the late 15th century by Ali al-Mandri, a refugee from Granada. Andalusian Muslims and Jews settled in large numbers, giving the city its strong Andalusian character.
From 1913 to 1956 Tétouan was the capital of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco and gained a new town, the Ensanche, west of the medina. The medina has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, and the city is known for its museums, its school of crafts and its fine arts institute.
The Medina of Tétouan was rebuilt in the late 15th century by refugees from Granada and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. Its low white houses sit inside long outer walls with three forts and seven historic gates, which were closed at night until the early 20th century.
The Royal Palace of Tétouan grew from a government palace built around 1740 and became the seat of the Khalifa in 1913, when the city was capital of the Spanish protectorate. It also takes in the old Spanish consulate and was remodelled in 1947 to a design by painter Mariano Bertuchi.
Hassan II Square, traditionally known as the Feddan, is a historic square in the Medina of Tétouan. The Royal Palace, once the seat of the Khalifa and of the Spanish High Commissioner, fills one side; in 1988 the square was remodelled and a wall and gate were built before the palace.
The Mellah of Tétouan is the old Jewish quarter south of the medina, laid out when Sultan Slimane chose the site of the earlier mellah for a grand mosque. It was sacked in the war of 1860, when it had 16 to 18 synagogues, and its lanes lead to the restored Isaac Ben Walid Synagogue.
The Archaeological Museum of Tétouan traces its history to 1923 and moved into its present building between the medina and the new town on 19 July 1940. It covers prehistoric, ancient and Islamic times, with Roman mosaics from Lixus in its Andalusian garden and finds from Tamuda, dug from 1921.
The Bab el-Oqla Museum takes its name from one of the seven gates of the medina and fills a bastion built for Sultan Moulay Abderrahmane in 1830 and 1831. Founded in 1928 and moved here in 1948, it reopened on 28 January 2022 with displays of zellige, painted wood and funerary stones.
The Isaac Ben Walid Synagogue stands in the mellah south of the medina and is named after Rabbi Isaac Bengualid, a leading scholar of the city who lived from 1777 to 1870. It held its last regular service in 1968, was restored in 2001 and is now kept as a museum for visitors and pilgrims.
The Tétouan Centre of Modern Art opened on 20 November 2013 and holds between 180 and 200 works by self-taught artists and by graduates of the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tétouan. It stands opposite the Riad al-Ochak garden and shows how the city became a centre of modern Moroccan painting.
The Church of Our Lady of Victories was built while Tétouan was capital of the Spanish protectorate and was consecrated in 1925. It looks over Moulay El Mehdi Square in the Ensanche and measures 39 by 19 metres, with three naves in the Mudéjar style that mixes Spanish and Moorish traditions.
The Ensanche is the new town that Spain laid out west of the medina after Tétouan became the capital of its protectorate in 1913, a role it kept until 1956. Its streets radiate from Moulay El Mehdi Square with the Catholic church and post office, and Mohammed V Avenue runs east to the medina.
Riad al-Ochak, whose name means the Lovers' Garden, is a public garden of Tétouan laid out in the Moorish style and officially named Moulay Rachid Garden. It lies opposite the city's Museum of Modern Art and is a calm green stop between visits to the nearby museums.
Tamuda is an ancient city 6 kilometres west of Tétouan on the south bank of the Martil valley, founded by the Mauretanian Berbers in the 3rd century BC. After a revolt around 42 AD, the Romans rebuilt it as a fortified camp, and the stone ruins of the castrum can still be seen at the site today.
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