LE PETIT SOCCO

The beating heart of the medina, the Petit Socco district marks the center of the old town. This is where the latest news was told, where the wildest entertainment took place and where endless meetings were held in cafés and casinos. Despite the city's many changes, Petit Socco has retained its authentic Moroccan character. Here, traders from the surrounding countryside would set up shop to sell their handicrafts. After the departure of the English, Sultan Moulay Ismaïl stationed his troops here, and the square became a supply point. Petit Socco retained its original vocation as an open market protected by the city walls built by the Portuguese. With the advent of Moulay Hassan ^I, the place was finally modernized. Electricity was installed in 1892 and the first buildings went up in the early ^20th century, launching the "European" way of life. Gradually, the dirt square disappeared, replaced by cafés, a post office and the Spanish legation. From 1910 onwards, banks, restaurants, casinos and dance halls flourished. Its special atmosphere is fueled by the mix of people who gather in this open-air theater. Disembarking from transatlantic liners or ferries, the whole world meets at the Café des Postes, the Café Central with its Spanish music and singers, or the Café España. Café Fuentès welcomes intellectuals and international newspaper correspondents. Jean Genet, Tennessee Williams, Joseph Kessel and Truman Capote were among those who met there. Ian Fleming, father of James Bond, was also a regular. Later, Keith Richards and Patti Smith were also regulars. Mohamed Choukri recounts his life in the heart of Petit Socco in Le Pain nu and Le Temps des erreurs. But it was also thanks to the many foreign representations that the district became the city's nerve center. Tangier became the diplomatic capital of the Cherifian Kingdom. The other side of Petit Socco is darker, and it's this that has given it the mythical character that haunts it to this day. After dark, hoodlums, traffickers and political refugees would gradually take over the alleyways. It was their playground. Today, Petit Socco has become a popular tourist spot^, with a few cafés where you can sit on the terrace and daydream, imagining all the crazy stories that once animated the place.