Rabat, modern capital and historic city: what the 2012 inscription means for the new town

In the other medinas the boundary is simple: inside the ramparts, heritage; outside, the ordinary city. In Rabat that boundary does not exist. UNESCO inscribed the 12th-century city and the 20th-century one together, because the second was designed to respect the first, and it is that relationship which is protected. This guide describes what the inscription covers, how the new town was designed, which buildings are concerned, what the World Heritage Committee has been monitoring since 2019 and what that means for anyone who owns or renovates in Rabat. It belongs to the Cities section.

What does the inscription cover?

UNESCO describes a site that “is the product of a fertile exchange between the Arabo-Muslim past and Western modernism”. The new town, “conceived and built under the French Protectorate from 1912 to the 1930s”, includes “royal and administrative areas, residential and commercial developments and the Jardins d’Essais botanical and pleasure gardens”. The older parts “include Hassan Mosque (begun in 1184) and the Almohad ramparts and gates, the only surviving parts of the project for a great capital city of the Almohad caliphate as well as remains from the Moorish, or Andalusian, principality of the 17th century”.

How was the new town designed?

UNESCO’s synthesis: “the well-conserved modern city has been rationally designed, and contains quarters and buildings with clearly defined functions and significant visual and architectural qualities. The modern city is characterised by the coherence of its public spaces and by the putting into practice of public health ideas (services, role of vegetation, etc.).” Criterion (iv) holds that “the city constitutes an outstanding and fully realized example of modern town planning, for a 20th century capital city, achieved by functional territorial organisation which incorporates the cultural values of the past in the modernist project”. Criterion (ii) adds the reverse movement: the modern city “bears outstanding testimony to the diffusion of European ideas in the early 20th century, their adaptation to the Maghreb, and in return the influence of local, indigenous styles on architecture and decorative arts”.

That last point is what makes the property singular: “the emergence of a distinctive architectural and decorative style which is characteristic of contemporary Morocco”, in which the avenue’s apartment blocks, the administrative buildings and the villas borrow from the medinas their zellige, their green-tiled canopies, their arches and their patios. The Habous quarter of Diour Jamaâ, laid out in the 1910s and 1920s on the model of a medina derb, is its laboratory. What is protected is not just one building or another, but a way of building a city while looking at the previous one.

Which quarters and buildings are concerned?

UNESCO is explicit on housing: “the habitat is illustrated by quarters with clearly asserted identities: the Medina and the Kasbah, the residential quarters and the middle-class housing of the modern city, and finally the neo-traditional quarter of Habous de Diour Jamaâ. The city includes a full range of monumental, architectural and decorative elements from the various earlier dynasties.” The Hassan quarter, between the medina and the mausoleum, and the beginning of the Agdal, planned in that period, are inscribed as part of the new town; the apartment buildings, civil servants’ villas, public buildings, the station, the post office, the Bank, the lycée, are its attributes.

Integrity is judged “satisfactory” in all its dimensions: “the balance between the urban plan of the modern city and the conservation of its many earlier urban strata, the integrity of the habitation in the various quarters, the integrity of the archaeological ensembles, the adequately conserved fortifications of the Almohad wall”. One reservation on authenticity concerns owners directly: “quantified data concerning the individual authenticity of the residential buildings would be a useful addition to the inventory system already in place”. In other words, the inventory exists, but the actual state of each building and villa remains to be documented.

What does the World Heritage Committee monitor?

At inscription UNESCO already warned: “it is necessary to carefully monitor the impact of the major works being considered outside the property, particularly with regard to the view of the property and of the River Bou Regreg from the Kasbah site which overlooks them”. In 2019 (Decision 43 COM 7B.52) the Committee took note of the “Rabat, light city and cultural capital of Morocco” scheme and of “a major urban landscape transformation of the Bouregreg river valley to link the cities of Rabat and Salé”, noted “with concern the potentially adverse visual impact that the proposed ‘O Tower’ would have on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property”, and requested “full details of all the ongoing and proposed major restoration and development projects and necessary HIAs” before any further commitments.

In 2021 (44 COM 7B.134) it considered the solutions adopted “for the interface between the extension of the Rabat-Ville Railway Station and the historic wall” to be “the most appropriate in architectural and technical terms”. In 2023 (45 COM 7B.39) it took note of an advisory mission in May 2022 and of the launch of the management plan update, asked “how the revised plan will be integrated with the active Special Development Plans (Plans d’Aménagement Spécial – PAS)”, and requested “precise details of the new technical solutions used to reinforce the dematerialization of the Mohammed VI Tower”. The 2023 state of conservation report states that “all projects within the property or its buffer zone with a potential impact on Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), as well as the related impact studies, are being submitted to the World Heritage Centre”.

What is the protection regime, and what does it mean for an owner?

UNESCO stresses how early the framework came: “because of its introduction from an early date, the legislation which applies to the city of Rabat has made a fundamental contribution to the history of its conservation as an urban ensemble which is both ancient and modern. The new measures announced concerning more extensive urban protection and the protection of the urban landscape formed by the property are currently being promulgated.” The structure: “the management structure is in place, and is coordinated by the new overarching authority of the Rabat Cultural Heritage Preservation Foundation. It relies, with regard to technical and scientific matters, on the National Heritage Directorate, and on various other bodies responsible for specific elements of the property, together with the services of the Municipality and Prefecture of Rabat.” A five-year action programme is set out in the management plan, whose update for 2022-2026 the Foundation has launched.

For an owner, three consequences. In the inscribed quarters, the medina and the kasbah but also Hassan and the Habous, the planning rules are those of the special development plans, which set heights, envelopes, façades and materials with reference to heritage, in addition to Law 22-80 for listed buildings; any project follows the building permit with the heritage opinion. A building or villa in the new town is not “an ordinary construction”: its façade, canopies, ironwork and joinery are attributes of the property, and their replacement with aluminium or concrete can be refused. And since 2019 any project that alters the property’s skyline or the view from the kasbah, even outside the perimeter, goes through a heritage impact assessment submitted to UNESCO.