The palace el Badiâ

To build this imposing work, the sultan chooses the north-eastern corner of the kasbah; the site had the advantage of being next to the private apartments and inviolable of the sultan, the palace being intended for the festivals and the solemn audiences where the ostentation of the sovereign could appear with the elite of the kingdom and the foreign embassies. It was the object of several accounts and poems.

Old descriptions also depict us the sumptuous decoration of Badiâ which is known for us only through the decoration of the tombs saadiens.

The design of this jewel of Islamic art was influenced by Alhambra de Grenade.

Old texts provide us invaluable indications to understand the structure of the palace El Badiâ, like that of Portuguese P. Francisco of S. Juan LED Oporto of 1585, illustrated of a plan, as well as a plan drawn by English Windus in 1727. The Portuguese plan indicates that the wall of the palace was flanked of four turns of angle. The access was done by a large number of doors of which principal, which bore the name of Bab Al-Rokham, Porte marble, opened in the south-western angle of the southern face of the palace. Other doors mentioned by the chroniclers opened on the southern faces, is and western.

The palatial unit was ordered around an immense rectangular court of 135 m out of 110 m, in the middle of which a basin of 90 m out of 20 m in the center was arranged of which a surmounted monumental fountain of two superimposed and surmounted basins of a fountain rose; this solid mass was accessible to dry foot by the means from flagstones carried by columns.

On both sides of this central basin, four floors, traced with art, are covered with trees and flowers laid out in squares separated by alleys paved from zelliges.

“They are so large that of each one it has there a part intended for the flowers which make there escutcheons and drawings, and a part with the fruit trees, lemon trees, orange trees and others,…”

The gardens were called gardens of the desire, the joy, and other names quite as evocative.

The angles of the court are occupied by small rectangular basins of 30 m out of 10 Mr.

On both sides of large central basin, in the middle of the two small sides of the court, projecting two small houses carried by columns rose facing: one, known under the name of crystal Pavillon, of which there remains only the ruins, was the subject of excavations which put at the day its plan while carcass work of the second, called Pavillon of the audiences, remains in the form of high walls. Both, with almost identical plan, almost square, were covered with a cupola supported by twelve massive columns. The ground of the two houses was covered with zelliges which one can observe some specimens in the House of the audiences. Small running water basins and channels of water conveyance made it possible to refresh the interior of the building. Outside, surrounded by columns, they opened by large doors on the main courtyard.

Two other houses, rectangular and much larger, and covered of green tiles, occupy the medium on the large sides, northern side and southern part. Unlike the first two houses, the provision of the green House and House of the heliotrope, slightly in withdrawal, allowed the installation of two galleries open along the walls supported by two series of columns of jasper and glazes of traditional frames.

Once the completed palace, it comprised more than 360 parts.

A significant number of doors and staircases served the palace. It seems that the principal door, on the southern face, is probably the marble door described by El Ifrani like a marvellous artistic jewel. All the services were with the basement, dissimulated with the sight of the hosts.

The fitting of this palace revealed an amazing modernity, nothing did not miss. “Most astonishing is still what certain rooms of the palace contained. especially that of the gynaeceum… A mobile cupboard of mechanical food autodirigeable of manner, thanks to precise buttons, kitchen with the residence of the princesses and ladies of the palace, resembling the elevator known today in the large hotels. ”

There even existed, it appears, a system close to the “central heating” which used a copper piping where circulated of cool water or heat.

The mosque and the hammam would have been splendid.

Palace El Badi, El Ifrani tells

“that one found there marbles of all the colors veined, black and white, whose glare dazzles the sight and throws amazement in the spirit of the spectator: the capitals of the columns were covered with molten gold or of sheets of fine gold, the ground was paved superb flagstones of polished marble and finely cut… Lastly, the ceilings were encrusted with gold and the walls, decorated with this same metal, moreover were decorated brilliant sculptures and made elegant inscriptions of the most beautiful stucco”.

The first characteristic of this palace was the multitude of its cupolas. The El-Khamsinia cupola (Fiftieth, because its expenses of realization reached fifty quintals), the Gold Cupola, the Green one, Red, the White one, the Cupola of Glass, the Victoire, the Crowns and the Large Cupola of the courtroom of the foreign delegations. Twenty, they competed of size and magnificence.

On each one of them were engraved inscriptions in worms carved in wood, drawn on the earthenware or moulded in stucco. Each inscription was in keeping with the nature of the cupola which contained it and sometimes, even, it contained a kind of challenge intended for the close cupola.

El Fichtali, the eloquent secretary of El Mansour, made speak the qoubba “Khamsinia” in these terms:

“The beauty of my wonders charms the eyes; The splendor of my spirit charms the glance:
My sculptures are so beautiful that their glare dazzles the eyes of all the spectators.
At the top of my ceiling appear brilliant stars, whose clearness at any moment is not darkened.
My atmosphere is formed by the vapors of the perfume which projects on the ground the shade and the darkness.
I exceed in height the spheres of the seven skies and therefore Fortune does not taste any more one moment of rest…”

El Badiâ filled with wonder its time and was regarded as a terrestrial paradise, a wonder of the world, the roof of Article It is of him that the poet said:

“Its aspect is fairy-like, its wave is pure, its scented ground and its buildings are drawn up proudly in the airs.
Marrakech owes him its immense celebrity and, thanks to him, its glory will last of the centuries”.

The gardens extended on all the face is kasbah.

A large public garden, commun run, known as the Son-in-law, was equipped with a basin which disappeared and about which Marmol speaks like swimming pool, “a bath”, of one hundred feet length and twenty-five broad, paved small squares where Roy will bathe the summer. He understood also a pit with lions lock up as in a large hovel very with discovered and one went up there by a degree.

The garden of Qsar, of the particular apartments of El Mansour, communicated by a monumental door and a double staircase (of which a part was found) with Badiâ.

Around the kasbah, the sultan had reconstituted the large garden almohade El Buhayra and the name of Massara gave him, which extended, according to Matham. on one mile and half.

Thomas the Son-in-law gives an excellent description of it:

“From these mountains (the Atlas) several small rivers go down from beautiful and good water, which firstly come to sprinkle a garden which one calls small Messarra and make there a large perfectly beautiful pond which has thousand steps in square well. This water passes afterwards in an extraordinary garden, which one calls El Messara, which is full with lines of orange trees, of lemon trees, palm trees or date palms, olive-trees. almond trees, fig trees and pomegranates, entremélez of shrubs of jasmine and other odoriferous flowers”.

2. Group dwellings

3. Planted floors

4. Large basin

5. Basins of angle

6. House of the fifty bent

  (or House of the audiences)

7. Crystal house

8. House of the heliotrope

9. Remain of summer

10. Crystal garden

It is the historian El Ifranî who informs us on the other sources of inspiration like on the spot of source of materials of the palace. It reports that el Mansour made come from the workmen and the craftsmen of all the countries, even of Europe, and that the marble was imported of Pisa in Italy.

The richest materials were used to decorate the 360 parts with the palace: marbles of Italy, onyx of all the colors, mosaics and crystals, ivories and stuccos, coatings of gold sheet decorated walls and ceilings.

There does not remain large thing of the decoration of the palace el Badiâ, except some fragments of columns, stucco and earthenware squares.

2. Alcove

3. Remainders of bases of column

The House of the audiences was covered by a large pyramidal cupola supported by twelve marble columns. The access inside was done by three gates with two casements arranged in the middle of the sides north, south and east. The last are advanced by a gantry in the east.

The house is marked inside by a alcove where the sultan at the time of the audiences settled. In the center was a living room decorated by small basins of water embellished of zellige coloured, as well as water basin.

2. Gate

3. Central living room

4. Pillar

5. Alcove

6. Basin

7. Basin

The crystal House, or gold House, is surrounded by a punctuated gantry of water basins supplied with a judicious system of drains with four gates which were open on the sides of the monument.

The center is occupied by a living room which gives on a alcove, itself giving on a garden via a staircase. Contrary to the House of the audiences this one was intended for the personal use of the sultan.

2. Basin

3. Pillar

4. Gate

5. Central living room

6. Staircases

7. Recovery basin of water

2. Patio

3. Rooms

4. Basins

5. Pillar

6. Patio

It remains, in its simplicity, faithful to the plan of the traditional houses of the Islamic occident, and slices with ostentation moreover palace.

2. Basin

3. Central part

4. Two side parts

- What do you think of this palace?

The buffoon answered:

- When it is demolished, that will make a very beautiful heap of ruins!

Magnificence of the palace el Badiâ it remains indeed today only one immense esplanade dug of basins surrounded by high dilapidated walls. Its only inhabitants are from now on the couples of storks which installed their nests there.

Thus the palace El Badiâ was built at the end of the 16th century by the sultan saadien Ahmed el Mansour Dhahbî to celebrate the victory of the troops saadiennes over the Portuguese army in 1578 in the battle of Wadi Al-Makhazine, known in the Western world under the name of “Battle of the Three Kings”. Ahmed el Mansour had reached the power following the death of her brother and sultan at the time of this battle.

Ahmed el Mansour wanted to show in the world the glare of the reigning dynasty and to leave with the posterity a testimony of her size which would eclipse the work of the other dynasties.

According to the historian El Ifranî, the construction of this sumptuous palace, which gave place to an immense building site, were undertaken five months after the advent of the sultan in year 986 of Hégire (December 1578); work continued without interruption lasting more than sixteen years, to be completed in 1593-1594. Certain complementary work continued until 1603, thus covering the whole of the reign of the sovereign.

Work stopped neither of day nor of night, in spite of a multiplicity of craftsmen from Europe or being in Morocco and in spite of the abundance of materials imported from Occident and the East: of Tombouctou and Europe, of India and Brazil. The accounts agree to say that the Palace El Badiâ was a Paradise on the ground of Marrakech.

El Badi, the incomparable one, the marvellous one, was built with rare and invaluable materials brought back whole world. Certain raw materials came from the Indies, the imported marble of Italy was exchanged “weight for weight” against sugar, and the granite of Ireland chosen by an envoy of the queen Elizabeth Ière of England.

A considerable labor was engaged and the craftsmen and working foreign, for most Européens, were very well accommodated by the sultan who showed himself extremely generous in their connection. The chroniclers of the time tell indeed

“that El Mansour was shown very liberal and very benevolent in this circumstance. It largely paid the workmen and lavished to the skilful masons all kinds of generosities and gratifications. It dealt even with the maintenance with their children, so that these craftsmen can entirely devote their work and were distracted from it by no concern”.

Most of materials of the palace would have been conveyed in Meknès to be employed again in the construction of the palaces of the royal city of Moulay Ismaïl.

Today, there remains only one immense esplanade dug of gardens, planted orange trees and surrounded by high walls.

Addresses: Palace Al Badia, Place of the Tinmen, Kasbah, 40000 Marrakech

Paying entry: 10 dirhams for the palace alone and 20 dirhams with the minbar.