Audio Guide: Casablanca Old Town Walking Tour (Self Guided), Casablanca

French Army general and colonial administrator Hubert Lyautey viewed the Casablanca old quarter as something to be contained rather than transformed, deliberately building the modern city alongside it. His wise decision left the Old Town intact.

Locally known as the medina, the old town preserves the city’s earliest urban layers, long predating the modern metropolis that surrounds it. The word medina comes from Arabic, meaning simply “city”, but in North African usage it refers specifically to the historic core.

The story of Casablanca’s Old Town begins with Anfa, a Berber settlement established in antiquity on a sheltered Atlantic inlet. By the Middle Ages, Anfa had become a modest port engaged in regional trade, but it also gained a reputation as a base for corsairs. This notoriety drew the attention of Portugal, which destroyed the town in 1468 to protect its shipping routes. For centuries afterward, the site lay largely abandoned.

The old town as it exists today began to take shape in the 18th century, when the town was rebuilt. Defensive walls were erected, gates controlled access, and the street network developed organically. Small workshops, bakeries, and markets were woven directly into residential streets, making the old town a self-contained urban unit.

During the 19th century, the Old Town became increasingly crowded as port activity expanded. European merchants, Jewish traders, and Muslim craftsmen lived and worked in close proximity, often within the same streets. Religious buildings, mosques, zawiyas, and later a church, were inserted into the existing fabric.

Under French rule in the early 20th century, the old town was physically altered but not redesigned. Sections of the walls were demolished or pierced with new gates, including ceremonial entrances meant to frame colonial authority. Infrastructure was minimally upgraded, but large-scale reconstruction was avoided. As new European quarters rose nearby, the Old Town remained a working-class neighborhood tied to fishing, port labor, and informal commerce.

Walking through Casablanca’s Old Town, visitors pass beneath the Medina Gate near the Clock Tower, where colonial planning meets older urban rhythms. Narrow lanes lead past the modest Church of San Buenaventura and toward the Sidi Allal el-Kairouani Tomb, a quiet spiritual landmark. The walk often ends at Rick’s Cafe Casablanca, a cinematic reinterpretation of nostalgia set against the Atlantic.

Stepping through the Medina Gate reveals an immediate transition from the sound of modern Morocco to the ancient silence of the old quarter. Lyautey’s strategy to preserve rather than transform the old town resulted in a city with two distinct elements that coexist. The past remains central to the city's identity, functioning as the vital core around which the metropolis developed.