Fès — Soul of Morocco Beyond Marrakech

Fès: the authentic Morocco that Marrakech has forgotten

While Marrakech transforms itself year after year into a theme park for tourists — luxury riads, rooftop bars, influencers posing at Jardin Majorelle — Fès remains stubbornly itself. The spiritual and cultural capital of Morocco, with over a million inhabitants, this imperial city shelters the largest and best-preserved medieval medina in the Arab world. Fes el-Bali has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981 and remains the largest urban area on earth where cars cannot enter: only mules, carts and feet.

Getting lost in the medina

Fes el-Bali is a living organism. Nine thousand alleyways weave into a three-dimensional labyrinth that stimulates every sense: the scent of freshly baked bread mingles with that of leather, the muezzin's call rises above the hammering of coppersmiths, the shadow of a covered passage opens suddenly onto a sunlit courtyard. Here, hundreds of thousands of people still live and work — artisans, traders, students — keeping alive crafts unchanged for centuries.

The monumental entrance is Bab Bou Jeloud, the Blue Gate, clad in blue tilework on the outer face and green on the inner (the colours of Islam and the city). From here, Talaa Kebira — the main street — descends toward the heart of the medina. Resist the temptation to follow a map: getting lost is the only way to truly discover Fès.

The Chouara Tanneries

The most celebrated spectacle in Fès is the Chouara tannery, operating without interruption since the twelfth century. From the terraces of the surrounding leather shops — traders offer you sprigs of mint to soften the smell — you look down on hundreds of circular stone vats filled with natural dyes: the yellow of saffron, the red of poppy, the blue of indigo, the white of lime. Workers plunge and work the hides with bare hands, using techniques identical to those of the Middle Ages. It is a raw and mesmerising spectacle, a living document of a pre-industrial era.

Al Quaraouiyine: the world's oldest university

Founded in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri, a woman of Tunisian origin, the mosque-university of Al Quaraouiyine is recognised by the Guinness World Records and UNESCO as the oldest continuously operating institution of higher learning in the world. Its recently restored library holds extraordinarily rare manuscripts, including a ninth-century Quran written on gazelle skin. Non-Muslims cannot enter the mosque, but may admire the courtyard and the library by appointment.

The Jewish quarter and the Merinid tombs

The Mellah, the ancient Jewish quarter, reveals another face of Fès's history. Founded in the fifteenth century, it preserves synagogues, a Jewish cemetery with white headstones stretching to the horizon, and a distinctive architecture of carved wooden balconies. Today it is home to Muslim families, but the memory of the coexistence between the two communities is still very much alive.

For the finest panorama over the medina, climb to the Merinid tombs — the ruins of the dynastic mausoleum of the rulers who governed Fès in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. At sunset, when the minarets light up and the call to prayer echoes simultaneously from dozens of mosques, the spectacle is breathtakingly beautiful.

Ceramics and mosaics

Fès is Morocco's ceramics capital. In the Ain Nokbi quarter you will find the workshops where the celebrated zellige tiles are hand-crafted — the geometric mosaics that decorate fountains, mosques and palaces across all of Morocco. Watching a master chisel each tessera with millimetre precision is hypnotic. Plates, tajines and decorative tiles can be purchased here at prices far below those in tourist shops.

Practical information

Getting there

Fès has an international airport (FEZ) with direct connections to Milan Bergamo, Rome and other Italian cities via Ryanair and other low-cost carriers. A taxi from the airport to the medina costs around €15. Alternatively, you can fly to Casablanca and take the Al Boraq high-speed train to Kenitra, then a conventional train to Fès (about 4 hours total).

When to go

March–May and October–November. Summer is scorching (above 40°C); winter is cool but sunny. During Ramadan many restaurants close during the day, but the evenings are magical.

Budget and tips

- Visa: not required for Italian citizens for stays up to 90 days.

- Budget: around €40 per day — authentic riad €20–40/night, full meal €5–8.

- Guide: almost indispensable on your first day in the medina. Stick to official licensed guides (around €30 for a half-day) and be wary of the "faux guides" who approach you in the street.

- Crafts: bargain politely. Opening prices are often three times the real value.

- Hammam: try a traditional neighbourhood hammam (not a tourist one) — an authentic experience for €2–3.

Fès does not give itself up easily. It is a city that must be conquered on foot, with patience, letting curiosity be your guide. But those who accept the challenge discover the deepest Morocco — the one that Marrakech, in its rush to please, has ended up hiding.