Fort Towson

View towards the Petit Socco

Rue Es-Siaghine (Arabic: زنقة الصياغين, meaning Silversmith's Street, also transliterated as Rue Siaghin or Rue Siaghine) is a street in Tangier, Morocco. Under Roman rule it was the decumanus maximus, the main thoroughfare of the city.[1] The street led to the harbor through the south gate. Today the street is lined with cafes, bars and souvenir shops, and leads down into the Petit Socco in the medina of Tangier.[2]

Buildings

  • At No. 44 is the Fondation Lorin, an arts centre which is also located along the street with displays dating back to the 1930s.
  • At No. 47 is Dar Niaba, a former administrative building noted for its courtyard growing oranges. From 1851 to 1920 the building served as the residence of the naib, the Moroccan high official who served as an intermediary between the sultan and foreign ambassadors.[3]
  • At No. 51 is the Church of the Immaculate Conception, which was built by the Spanish in the 1880s and became the centre of the Christian community in Tangier.

See also

References

  1. ^ Morocco. Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guides. 2006. p. 134.
  2. ^ Humphrys, Darren (2008). Frommer's Morocco. John Wiley & Sons. p. 280. ISBN 978-0-470-18403-5.
  3. ^ There is a long discussion of the building and the area, going back to Portuguese times (the entrance is apparently Portuguese), in Martin Malcolm Elbl, Portuguese Tangier (1471-1662): Colonial Urban Fabric as Cross-Cultural Skeleton (Baywolf Press: Toronto and Peterborough, 2013) ISBN 978-0-921437-50-5. There is also a great deal on information about the other streets around this spot. Links (consulted on 18 May 2023), at https://maproom44.com/psr/monvol001.html and (for this and other related publications) https://utoronto.academia.edu/MartinMalcolmElbl and https://books.google.com/books?id=AeTBAgAAQBAJ