page_title: Fes Jdid
section_title: 20th century to present day
hierarchical_section_title: Fes Jdid / History / 20th century to present day
caption_attribution_description: English: Visit in Fes December,27th 2019 to January 1st,2020
context_page_description: Fes Jdid or Fes el-Jdid is one of the three parts of Fez, Morocco. It was founded by the Marinids in 1276 as an extension of Fes el Bali and as a royal citadel and capital. It is occupied in large part by the historic Royal Palace, which was once the center of government in Morocco and which is still used on occasion by the King of Morocco today. Since 1981 it has been classified, along with Fes el-Bali, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
context_section_description: In 1912 French colonial rule was instituted over Morocco following the Treaty of Fes. One immediate consequence was the 1912 riots in Fes, a popular uprising which included deadly attacks targeting Europeans as well as native Jewish inhabitants in the Mellah, followed by an even deadlier repression. Fes and its Dar al-Makhzen ceased to be the center of power in Morocco as the capital was moved to Rabat. A number of social and physical changes took place at this period and across the 20th century. Starting under Lyautey, the creation of the French Ville Nouvelle  ("New City") to the west also had a wider impact on the entire city's development.
  In the Bab al-Amer area, the French administration judged the old gate too narrow and inconvenient for traffic and demolished a nearby aqueduct and some of the surrounding wall in order to improve access. In the process they created a vast open square on the site of the former Jewish cemetery (which in 1894 had been moved to the southeast) which became known as Place du Commerce and which is now known as Place des Alaouites. In 1924, the French went further and demolished a series of modest shops and stables on the northern edge of the Jewish Mellah in order to build a wide road for vehicles (Rue Boukhessissat or Bou Khsisat; later also Rue des Mérinides) between the Mellah and the southern wall of the Royal Palace, which today passes in front of Bab Semmarine and continues towards Fes el-Bali. The former shops were replaced with more ostentatious boutiques built in the architectural style of the Jewish houses of the Mellah, with many open balconies and outward ornamentation. Bab Semmarine itself was also altered and opened up to increase the flow of traffic. Elsewhere in the city changes were less dramatic. One unusual French policy was the designation of the Moulay Abdallah quarter as a red light district.
  The population of the city increased significantly over time (as elsewhere in Morocco): between 1936 and 1948, the population of the Moulay Abdallah quarter went from 5,508 to 9,500 and the population of Fes el-Jdid proper (i.e. the main area between Bab Semmarine and Bab Dekkakine) went from 9,622 to 26,500. By contrast, however, the Mellah also became steadily depopulated of its Jewish inhabitants, who either moved to the Ville Nouvelle, to Casablanca, or emigrated to countries like France, Canada, and Israel. In the late 1940s, estimates of the Jewish population include 15,150 in the Mellah and 22,000 in all of Fes. However, major waves of emigration after this have essentially depleted the Jewish community, with no functioning synagogues remaining in the Mellah. In 1997 there were reportedly only 150 Jews in all of Fes.
  In the late 1960s and early 1970s, King Hassan II ordered the creation of a new entrance to the Royal Palace at Place des Alaouites, at which time the now-famous gates of the palace were constructed here. Although no longer the primary official residence of the monarchy, the Palace is still used as a residence by the King of Morocco to this day.
caption: The Gates of the Royal Palace (Dar al-Makhzen). These gates were crafted in the 20th century when King Hassan II moved the main entrance of the palace to the southwest.
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