Fez: reading a city through its gates
Beyond Bab Bou Jeloud lies a story of neighbourhoods on two riverbanks, brought into a city of learning, exchange and making. Start with a visible threshold, then look for the connections a single photograph cannot contain.
Between two banks
UNESCO locates early Fez on two riverbanks in the Idrisid period and describes Andalusian, eastern and African influences in its development. Water therefore belongs to the city’s story even when it is out of sight behind the gate.
In the photograph, the arch draws the eye from a clearly outlined decorated façade towards a passage of overlapping buildings. Follow that shift: from an exterior seen at once to details revealed gradually. The gateway cannot contain Fez, but it can change the scale at which we look.
Story sources: UNESCO · Bjørn Christian TørrissenFrom threshold to craft
Beyond the gate, continue towards a college or a workshop. Architecture and labour are not separate subjects: the decorated surface itself invites questions about its makers and the time required to bring separate pieces together.
Then return to Chefchaouen’s blue lanes. The comparison is not a beauty contest, but a way of noticing different rhythms: a monumental threshold here, a stair and a wall changing the view around each corner there.
Story sources: Bjørn Christian TørrissenStory sources
Sources reviewed:
- Medina of FezUNESCO
- Bab Bou Jeloud in FezBjørn Christian Tørrissen
