TRAINMONHER – Cultural Policies in Morocco

Cultural Policies – Morocco

Prof. Boumedienne Tanouti (University Cadi Ayyad)

TRAINMONHER STUDY

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NATIONAL POLICIES ON MONUMENTAL HERITAGE

MOROCCO (Université Cadi Ayyad, Fac. des Sciences (Campus Semlalia) – Département de Géologie, Maroc)

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS IN MOROCCO Introduction Morocco is an old country where several civilizations succeeded and many races have mixed. Crossroad of the great commercial ways between Europe, Africa and the Middle-East, Morocco shelters a rich inheritance and a varied heritage of this diversity. In turn the Berber ones, the vandals, the Romans and the Moslems extended their capacity on the north of Africa and Andalusia, leaving behind them eternal testimonies of the refinement of their civilizations and ways of living. In the field of built heritage, the succession of the Moslem dynasties from the 8th century carried out the synthesis of arts in the Mediterranean circumference by combining the column of the ancient time, the Roman vault, the Persian warhead and cupola, and the courtyards of Eastern palaces. This well-succeeded mixture reached an undeniable magnificence under the Saadiens sovereignty in the 16th century (e.g., the Badii Palace and the Saadien Tombs in Marrakech).

1. The situation at colonial time An important part of the classification of historic buildings in Morocco was carried out at the colonial time, in particular under the responsibility of Marshal Lyautey, a man of culture and a great builder. The decrees (dahirs) related with the zones of Rabat and Marrakech that were promulgated at the time the French General Resident in Morocco was Marshal Lyautey are listed separately as an Annex.

2. After the independence The efforts allowed during the French protectorate unfortunately were not continued after Morocco independence what has had a desolating effect on the state of many monuments that were set free to robbery and destruction. It was undoubtedly the classification of the old medinas of Morocco as world heritage by UNESCO that awakened the common Moroccan for the importance of the national inheritance and for the interest that this heritage presents, not only for the memory of the country, but for Mankind in general. Indeed, since 1980 several monuments and sites (including historical cities) from Morocco were declared World Heritage by UNESCO. Fès medina inscribed in 1981 Marrakech medina inscribed in 1985

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The historical city of Meknès inscribed in 1996 The archaeological site of Volubilis inscribed in 1997 The medina of Tétouan (old Titawin) inscribed in 1997. The cultural space of Plaza jamaa El Fna inscribed in 2001 The medina of Essaouira (old Mogador) inscribed in 2001 The Portuguesecity of Mazagan (El Jadida) inscribed in 2004 This popular awakening was reinforced by a certain number of actions planed by the authorities and by the adoption of a bulk strategy with the purpose of using historical buildings for local development. This strategy was developed at several levels.

2.1. Administrative and officially recognized level Several measures have been taken at this level. • Cities were provided with plans of installation with the purpose of ensuring an harmonious development, taking into account the specificities of each one and integrating them in the natural environment.

• Architecture must respect the traditions and the Moroccan art (according to the recommendations listed in the speech of King Hassan II addressed to the architects in 1984. • A Cultural Heritage Directorate was implemented in the Ministry of Culture of in 1985. This Directorate has the role of protecting, restoring, emphasizing and making known the architectural, archaeological, and ethnographic heritage, as well as all the national patrimony with historical or artistic interest. It is organized according to the main fields of intervention into four great divisions, each one including several administrative and management services: - Division of studies and technical interventions o Service of studies and scientific documentation o Service of technical interventions - Division of management of historical monuments and sites o Service of management o Service for the valorisation and classification of monuments and historical sites - Division of the general inventory of cultural patrimony o Service of patrimony inventory and enquiries o Service of publications and promotion of patrimony o Service of traditions, uses and costumes - Division of museums o Service of museums management o Service of safeguard and acquisition of collections At a regional scale, the Management of the Cultural Heritage is based on specialized technical centres: - Centre for the conservation and rehabilitation of the architectural patrimony of the regions of Atlas and South – OUARZAZATE - Centre of research and Alaouites studies – RISSANI

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- National Park of rupestrian patrimony – TAHANAOUT - Centre of the Morocco-Lusitanian patrimony – El-JADIDA

• Establishment of urban agencies with the role of controlling and following-up the development of great metropolis in the country.

• Constitution of the National School of Architecture (1980). • Recovery of traditional constructive techniques based on the use of earth through the implementation in Marrakech of an institute dedicated to the formation of young people.

• Establishment of the National Institute of Archaeology and Patrimony (Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine , INSAP) in 1985, with the aim of teaching, training and performing research in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage.

• Creation in 1989 of an agency for the rehabilitation of the Fès Médina (Ader-Fes). The project of rehabilitation was financed by the World Bank and completed by the end of 2005.

• Establishment of the Center for Inventory and Documentation of Patrimony (CIDP). The CIDP is a structure charged to proceed with the inventory and documentation of the material and the immaterial cultural patrimony, as well as natural inheritance, by using new technologies of information and documentation.

2.2. At a regional level At the regional level, the strategy was based on the principle of integrating the historic buildings in the regional processes of development. To reach this objective, the following stages must be attained: ● inventory of all the historic buildings and development of a data base made up of a card per monument indicating the localization, typology, period of building and actual mode of management (public, private,…); ● classification of the monuments relatively to their original function. The great majority of indexed monuments can be classified into one of the following categories:

• cultural or religious ( Medersa , Zaouia ,…)

• private (private residences, r iads ,…)

• economic (oil mills, manufactures, aqueducts,…)

• social (Moorish baths, souks ,…)

• administrative or military ( kasbahs , industrial unit for weapons,…) ● state of conservation of the monument and desirably a plan for its rehabilitation; ● proposal for the insertion of the monument into the process of local development.

3. Ancient planning A decisive stage was reached in the national policy as regards the valorization of patrimony through the application of a national strategy for the intervention into ancient planning . This strategy was worked out by the general secretariat for the National Council of Habitat and Urbanism. By “ancient planning” we mean the médinas , rural and historical villages, ksars and Kasbahs , and also villages and town centers of the colonial type.

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This strategy rests upon a report that can be summarized in the following terms: The ancient urban and rural planning constitute an inestimable heritage for the Kingdom: more than thirty five médinas, thousands of rural villages in addition to ksour and kasbah extending by nearly two thousand kilometers. This inheritance of a great architectural and urban quality covers a population estimated at five million inhabitants. It would count 200.000 buildings including 180.000 residences and 20.000 social, educational and cultural infra-structures. Its importance is as much cultural as social and economic. Its potential role in housing, tourism and craft industry is of primary importance at the national level. However, this inheritance is suffering degradation and a total assumption of responsibility is required so that it can better take part in the development of the Kingdom*.

The solution suggested consists in integrating this inheritance socially, economically and culturally so that it can take part in the economic and social development of the Country. To carry out these objectives an action plan was proposed, resting on the following values:

It fulfills the requirements of UNESCO (inspired by the Plans of Management);

It is equipped with the legal force (specified by the urbanism code, integrated in the documents of town planning);

It constitutes an opportunity to improve and implement the Plans of Installation and Safeguard launched by the MHU;

It is validated for 10 years duration;

It is worked out by diversified competences;

It is founded on consultations following a consensus between all the speakers;

It is approved at the local level;

It is contractual, engaging the whole parts concerned, each one in what relates to it, to realize and follow closely the provisions (conventions and contracts of cities) *.

4. At the university level A Pole of Competence on Patrimony (2PC) was created at the university level. The pole of competence 2PC is a multidisciplinary university structure which has a good grid of the national territory: indeed, 2PC is represented within the majority of the university towns of Morocco. It gathers a whole of experts having university references in the whole domain of conservation of the national patrimony. It can so carry out integrated projects covering all the aspects of the conservation questions relating the cultural heritage: • archaeological research, • historical research, • diagnosis of the degradation state of old materials and research on damage causes,

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• research on materials provenance and their ageing by implementing modern techniques of materials science, • proposal for restoration strategies having scientific bases, • suggestion of scenarios for the valorization of cultural patrimony and its integration in national economic fabrics, • implementation of university formations devoted to the cultural heritage. The Pole can get involved in the following actions: ● Inventory The inventory of the cultural inheritance is an extensive procedure which must involve archaeologists, historians, geographers… 2PC contributes to this delicate operation by mobilizing researchers to work under its coordination.

● Diagnosis In all cases, degradations cartographies as precise as possible must be drawn up for the important monuments. The typology of degradations must be identified; it is this typology that makes it possible to estimate dynamics of degradation and, in certain cases, also probable causes. The Pole 2PC has considerable experience in this type of action. It can generalize the methods developed for the case of Bab Agnaou Gate in Marrakech to other monuments in the Kingdom. ● Studies of materials One of the important problems raised by the attempts at restorations carried out until now is that they were not based on exhaustive studies on the materials, either natural or manufactured. These studies have in general the purpose of determining the nature and properties of materials originally used to build or decorate the monument, and to compare them with the characteristics of possible restoration materials. The deficiency in the studies on materials generally has two consequences: either the new materials “do not hold” for a long time because they are of worse quality or their incorporation changes the original monument (color, form, compactness…). 2PC can mobilize experienced researchers having instruments of measurement suitable to carry out this kind of study which constitutes a precondition to any restoration action. ● Formation The interest for the historic buildings in Morocco is recent. On the academic level, there are few courses dedicated to the patrimony. Taking into account its university affiliations and its multidisciplinary nature, 2PC configures an ideal framework for the design of formation courses devoted to the patrimony sector.

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* National strategy of intervention in ancient planning, National Secretariat of the Habitat and of Town planning (2006)

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ANNEX Listing of dahirs (decrees) published when the Résident Général at Morocco was Marshal Lyautey and concerning the areas of Rabat and Marrakech:

Rabat area • Kasba of Oudaïas ( dahir of June 6, 1914 carrying classification of certain parts of Kasba - BO n° 86 of June 19, 1914 - P. 454) ( dahir of bearing April 10, 1944 classification of vestiges of the Kasba - BO n° 1651 of June 16, 1944 - P. 374) • Enclosure of the town of Rabat ( dahir of Bearing June 22, 1914 classification - BO n° 90 of July 10, 1914 - P. 587) • Zone of protection of the Hassan tower (decree of May 15, 1917 - BO n° 240 of May 28, 1917 - P. 587. • Zone of protection along part of fortification of Rabat ( dahir of February 11, 1920, with classification of a protection zone, BO n° 384 of March 2, 1920 - P. 340). • Ruins of Chellah ( dahir of November 19, 1920 with classification - BO n° 423 of November 23, 1920 - P. 2016) • Various protection zones ( dahir of 19 November 1920 - BO n° 423 of November 23, 1920 - P. 2017). • Zone of protection along the fortifications of Rabat bordering the South-Eastern side of Aguedal of the Sultan (suspension of November 27, 1920, ordering an investigation - BO n° 427 of December 28, 1920 - P. 2176). • Zone of protection along the fortifications of Rabat, between Bab-teben and Sidi Makhlouf ( dahir of March 1, 1922 - BO n° 489 of March 7, 1922 - P. 410). • Hassan mosque and her minaret in Rabat ( dahir of November 25, 1922 bearing classification - BO n° 529 of December 12, 1922 - P. 1745). (Certain demolitions and modifications on the Hassan Tower, BO n° 2565 of December 22, 1961 - P. 1832). • Minaret of the mosque Mouline at Rabat ( dahir of June 28, 1924 bearing classification - BO n° 516 of August 12, 1924 - P .1258).

Marrekech area

• Walls of Marrakech ( Dahir of August 11, 1914 bearing classification, B.O n° 95 of August 21, 1914. P678).

• Medersa Moulay Youssef in Marrakech ( Dahir of January 28, 1916 bearing classification, B.O n° 172 of February 7, 1916. P140).

• Two Zones of protection around Koutoubia in Marrakech ( Dahir of November 19, 1920 bearing classification of various sites, B.O n° 423 of November 30, 1920. P.2017) (Modifications, dahir 15/7/1926 BO n° 723 of the 31/8/26, P. 1622) (Downgrading BO n°.832 of the 2/10/1928, P. 2550).

• Protection zone along the large enclosure of the city of Aguedal in Marrakech, at the interior and outside the fortifications ( Dahir of November 19, 1920 bearing classification of various sites, B.O n° 423 of November 30, 1920, P.2017).

• Mosque of Koutoubia in Marrakech ( Dahir of November 19, 1920 bearing classification of various Monuments, B.O n° 423 of November 23, 1920. P.2016). • Tombs of the Saâdiens Sultans , and of three Seqqaias in Marrakech ( Dahir of December 31, 1921 bearing classification, B.O n° 482 of January 17, 1922. P .58).

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• Nfis bridge around Marrakech (Dahir of January 22, 1922 bearing classification, B.O n° 487 of February 21, 1922. P305). • Zone of protection along the fortifications West of Marrakech and along the new avenue of the Koutoubia in Guéliz inside the walls of the town of Marrakech ( Dahir of February 1, 1922, B.O n° 486 of February 14, 1922. P.268). • Artistic protection of Marrakech town (decree of July 20, 1922, BO n° 509 of 25/7/1922, P.1195) • Location of site of Jamaâ El Fna in Marrakech ( Dahir of July 20, 1922 bearing classification, B.O n° 509 of July 25, 1922. P.1188). • Ruins of Palace of El Bedi in Marrakech ( Dahir of July 18, 1923 bearing classification, B.O n° 563 of August 7, 1923. P.965) • Palace El Bahia in Marrakech ( Dahir of January 21, 1924 bearing classification, B.On° 592 of February 26, 1924. P.382). • Ruins of the mosque of Tinmel ( Dahir of December 31, 1924 bearing classification, B.O n° 639 of January 20, 1925. P. 78). • House and water fountain at the gardens of Ménara in Marrakech ( Dahir of March 30, 1925 bearing classification, B.O n° 652 from April 21, 1925. P.654).

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