Casablanca Clock Tower

The Casablanca Clock Tower (Arabic: برج الساعة بالدار البيضاء, French: Tour de l'horloge de Casablanca) is a clock tower in Casablanca, Morocco. Located in United Nations Square, the tower is a 1993 reproduction of one of the oldest French-built structures in the city. The original tower was built between 1908-1910 by the French commander Charles Martial Joseph Dessigny, as an identical copy of one he had built in Aïn Séfra when stationed there previously.[1][2][3][4]

Casablanca Clock Tower
برج الساعة بالدار البيضاء
Tour de l'horloge de Casablanca
The clock tower built in 1993, imitating the form of the original built 1908 and demolished in 1948.
General information
Coordinates33°35′49″N 7°37′02″W
Completed1908
Renovated1993
Demolished1948

It was demolished May 1948.[4] The current tower is an almost identical copy rebuilt nearby in 1993.

History

The French Army commander Charles Martial Joseph Dessigny, then head of the French department of public facilities in the recently bombarded and occupied Casablanca, ordered the construction of the tower.[5] It was completed between 1908-1910,[4] before the Treaty of Fes in 1912, which officially established the French Protectorate. This original tower was one of the first things built by the French colonists in Casablanca and in Morocco. It reached a height of 30 meters, like another built under Dessigny's command in Aïn Séfra in the Algerian Atlas Mountains when he was stationed there.[6]

The clock tower carried great symbolic significance, as it was a symbol of French power and the dawning of a new order.[7]

The original tower was demolished in 1948 due to its precarious condition. It was then rebuilt near the original location in 1993, with the same design.[8]

Description
A photo of the original tower seen from the soq kbir market published in 1911, after the 1907 bombardment and before the establishment of the protectorate in 1912.

The tower imitates the form of a minaret, and like most Moroccan minarets, the tower is square-based. The tower features 4 round mechanical clock faces, one on each side of the tower. The numbers on these clock faces are in Roman numerals.

References
  1. "Ministère de la culture - Base Léonore". www2.culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  2. "Journal officiel de la République française. Lois et décrets". Gallica. 1920-10-04. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  3. "Les entreprises coloniales françaises : Afrique du Nord - Algérie". www.entreprises-coloniales.fr. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  4. Adam, André (1963). Histoire de Casablanca: des origines à 1914. Aix En Provence: Annales de la Faculté des Lettres Aix En Provence, Editions Ophrys. p. 161. Un « service des travaux municipaux » fut ébauché quand, en juillet 1909, un officier du Génie, le capitaine Bouillot fut adjoint au capitaine Dessigny. La trace la plus notable qu'il ait laissée dans l'histoire de la ville fut la Tour de l'Horloge, édifiée en 1910, au sommet d'une des tours du rempart (73), près de Bâb el-Kebîr, et qui, après la destruction du mur, se dressa seule au milieu de la Place de France jusqu'en mai 1948. Il faut cependant mettre à son actif des travaux plus utiles, notamment en matière de voirie: réfection des égouts, empierrage des rues de la vieille ville, aménagement de 2 500 mètres de voies pour desservir les constructions édifiées extra muros, étude de l'adduction des eaux de Tit-Mellil, création d'une pépinière pour alimenter les plantations municipales. ... (73) Elle était, selon Houel (p. 133), la réplique d'une tour identique édifiée par le même sur la place d'Ain Sefra.
  5. Cohen, Jean-Louis (2002). Casablanca : colonial myths and architectural ventures. Monique Eleb. New York. p. 41. ISBN 1-58093-087-5. OCLC 49225856.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. Cohen, Jean-Louis (2002). Casablanca : colonial myths and architectural ventures. Monique Eleb. New York. p. 43. ISBN 1-58093-087-5. OCLC 49225856.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. "الذكرى المائوية للمخطط الحضري الأول لمدينة الدارالبيضاء: المدرسة العليا للهندسة المعمارية بالبيضاء تنظم لقاءات علمية". مغرس. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  8. "Casablanca: a delight for your senses". Iberia.com. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
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