Morocco's Andalusian city — a UNESCO medina built by Muslim refugees from Granada
Tetouan is a northern Moroccan city whose UNESCO-listed medina was founded in 1492 by Moorish and Jewish refugees expelled from Granada after the fall of Al-Andalus. The result is Morocco's most distinctly Andalusian medina — white-washed houses with Spanish-style tiled courtyards, a cuisine heavy on olive oil and fish, and street music that still carries echoes of Al-Andalus. It is far less visited than Fès or Marrakech.
The original Tetouan was destroyed by the Spanish in 1399. It was refounded in 1492 when tens of thousands of Muslims and Jews fleeing the Spanish Reconquista arrived and rebuilt it in the image of their lost Granada. This explains the un-Moroccan feel of the medina — its low white buildings, ceramic tile decoration, and the Hispano-Moorish artisan traditions that UNESCO recognised in 1997. Spain later controlled the city as part of Spanish Morocco from 1912 to 1956.