Pigeons, Palms and Art Deco at Casablanca's Place Mohammed V

What you see on the square

The plaza is vast, ringed by white neo-Moorish facades under green-tiled roofs, with palms along the edges and a big circular fountain jetting water in the middle. Everyone calls it the pigeons' fountain, and the flocks on the paving explain why. The usual coach drop-off is on Boulevard de Paris, or at the Parc de la Ligue Arabe tram stop a minute away.

Inside La Grande Poste

The tower is the corner of the Wilaya of Casablanca, Marius Boyer's 1937 block in white render, its square tower stepping up at one end above a long arcaded ground floor and a copper-framed main doorway. The building is an active regional administration with no public interior and no group visits, and police are posted at the gates. Photograph the tower from the square side and keep the guards and the gates out of the frame.

La Grande Poste (Boulevard de Paris) is the one building on the square you can walk into, and the five minutes inside it are the best five minutes of the stop. Adrien Laforgue's 1920 facade turns the corner with an arcaded portico and panels of deep blue and green zellij in geometric and floral patterns. The hall behind is high, hung with a big brass chandelier under a carved wood ceiling, so look up before you look around.

This is a functioning post office, Barid Al-Maghrib, with queues of locals doing their business at the counters, and it costs nothing to look. The hall opens 08:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday, so a weekend arrival sees the facade only. Go in in twos and threes, because a 40-strong coach party clogs the place.

How long the stop takes

Twenty to thirty minutes covers the square itself, fountain and tower photograph included. A morning comes out of everything within a short walk of the paving, and the walk through the park from the square to the deconsecrated cathedral takes 10 minutes of it.

Reading the facades with Casamémoire

Casamémoire has been saving Casablanca's 20th-century buildings since 1995, and its volunteers are the expert way to read the ones around the square. A circuit looks like this: a guide with a folder of archive photographs stands you on a pavement in front of a 1930s apartment block and points up at balcony ironwork and stepped concrete bays. Tours are arranged in advance by donation or quote, and nobody joins one on the day.

The non-profit also runs the annual Journées du Patrimoine, whose 15th edition ran 13 to 19 April 2026, with three days of free guided architecture walks.

Two museums a short walk off the square

Musée de la Fondation Abderrahman Slaoui occupies a 1940s private townhouse on a quiet side street, three narrow floors of cases holding chunky Berber silver and gold jewellery and rows of tiny cut-crystal kohl bottles. Framed French travel posters of Morocco from the 1920s and 1930s line the walls, and they explain the era that built the facades you have just been standing under. At the top of the house there is a small rooftop terrace café. Entry is 60 DH, 40 DH for residents, free for under-12s, and 45 air-conditioned minutes is the right allowance. The staircases are tight and the house takes about 15 people at a time, so larger parties should split and book ahead on +212 5 22 20 62 17.

Villa des Arts de Casablanca is a 1934 white Art Deco villa with rounded corner bays and a curved stair, set back behind a small walled garden of palms. Entry is free and the galleries are staffed. Bare white rooms carry rotating contemporary Moroccan work, and the 2026 programme includes the Casablanca choreographic meetings. Call +212 522 29 50 87 to arrange a guided run-through. If the fountain is off and the weather is poor, this is the substitute, and the garden gives you somewhere to regroup.

Through Parc de la Ligue Arabe to the ex-Sacré-Cœur

Parc de la Ligue Arabe reopened after a full 100-million-dirham rebuild and is open 07:00 to 21:00 daily, free and unticketed. Long straight alleys run under tall Canary date palms past pergolas, clipped hedges, kiosk cafés and a children's play area, on resurfaced pale paths. The alleys are wide enough to walk a large party without blocking traffic, and the T1 tram terminus sits at the park's edge. The park is the shaded link between the square and the cathedral, and it saves you a hot boulevard.

The white twin towers closing the view at one end are L'Ex-Église Sacré-Cœur, which is no longer a church. Casa Events runs it as a ticketed monument you pay to walk into, 50 DH for an adult, 25 DH under-25, free for Moroccan residents and for visitors with mobility needs, with guided tours available. The huge concrete shell has Art Deco bones, pointed Gothic arches and lacy concrete tracery. Inside, the nave is stripped and empty, bare grey columns rising to the vault, the floor used for exhibitions.

The Gabriel Loire glass at Notre-Dame de Lourdes

Église Notre-Dame de Lourdes is an austere grey raw-concrete shell from 1954, almost windowless on the outside and barely on any tour route. Inside hangs 800 m² of Gabriel Loire stained glass in deep blues, reds and golds, throwing coloured light across the bare concrete. It is the most startling interior in central Casablanca.

The parish is active and entry is free outside Mass. Go in full daylight, because the glass is dead without it, and keep clear of the 11:00 Sunday service.

Lunch down Boulevard Mohammed V

Marché Central (Boulevard Mohammed V) is Pierre Bousquet's market of 1918-19, entered under a neo-Moorish arched gateway with a central cupola, a straight walk down the boulevard from the square and on the T1 tram line. Banks of cut flowers stand at the entrance, then wet aisles of Atlantic fish and shellfish on crushed ice and buckets of olives. Tiled grill stalls at the back cook what you choose, and a grilled fish lunch runs 60 to 150 DH a head. The market trades 08:30 to 16:30, so time the stop for lunch.

La Sqala sits in an 18th-century Portuguese-era bastion near the medina, thick ochre ramparts with old cannons pointing seaward. Behind them is a walled garden of mature trees, tiled fountains and blue-and-white tables under parasols, and it is the one place near the medina where you can sit down calmly. It opens 08:00 to 23:00 daily. Breakfast is 80 to 120 DH and mains 100 to 180 DH. Order the Moroccan breakfast of msemen and baghrir, and reserve ahead.

Rick's Café is a restored riad on the medina wall, an arched gallery running around a lantern-lit courtyard, pierced brass lamps, latticed screens, a white grand piano in the corner and a curved bar. It is a themed restaurant rather than a film set, serving lunch 12:00 to 15:00 with two dinner seatings after it, open seven days, year-round. Mains run 200 to 350 DH. Parties of six or more are taken only by prior arrangement with management, with set group menus on request, and same-evening or large-party bookings go through the maître d' by phone. The place is always booked out, so turning up on spec does not work.

The old medina and the Hassan II Mosque

The Old Medina of Casablanca is free and unticketed, low whitewashed walls and a keyhole gate opening onto narrow lanes of small shops stacked with spices, babouches, leather and plastic household goods, washing strung overhead. There are almost no souvenir stalls, and the quarter is compact and lived-in. The lanes are tight, and it is a daylight walk.

Hassan II Mosque stands on a platform over the Atlantic, its 210 m minaret above waves breaking against the sea wall. Inside are a retractable carved-cedar ceiling, enormous Venetian-glass chandeliers, pink granite columns and a vaulted underground hammam of pale marble. Non-Muslims enter only on the official timed guided walkthrough, which is built for coach-sized groups and runs in Arabic, French, English, Spanish and Italian. Entry is 140 DH for a foreign adult, 70 DH for foreign students, free for under-6s. Cover shoulders and knees, and take your shoes off inside. Slots run 09:00 to 12:00 and 15:00, with fewer on Friday, and shore excursions are timed around them.

The view from SKIES 28

SKIES 28 (Kenzi Tower, Twin Center) is a 28th-floor room wrapped in floor-to-ceiling glass, with an Art Deco-styled bar and low seating. The Hassan II minaret, the port cranes and the Atlantic lie below, and from up here you can see how the Art Deco grid around the square sits in the whole metropolis. It is the highest public view in the city.

The lounge bar runs 15:00 to 01:00 and the restaurant one floor down keeps separate service hours. Cocktails are 120 to 200 DH. The room seats around 200 and takes reservations, and sunset is its busiest hour.

Tickets at the door and tours booked ahead

Nothing on the square is ticketed, so there is no paperwork between you and the paving. The guided city tours that take in the square and the mosque run seven days a week, Monday to Sunday, and they are booking steadily. Book ahead if a ship timetable fixes your day.

For the ex-Sacré-Cœur, booking through casawe.ma keeps you out of the line. Check its event calendar first, because private bookings shut the building to walk-ups.

Arriving from the cruise terminal

Casablanca Cruise Terminal opened on 18 September 2025 and sits 1 km from downtown, a 650 m quay with three glazed passenger boarding bridges and a new glass-fronted hall. The hall holds customs and immigration, a guest information desk and Wi-Fi, and staff provide wheelchair assistance. Complimentary shuttle buses run into the centre, and a taxi to the square is 20 to 40 DH.

The square is close enough to reach independently, but the walk out crosses an industrial dock road and is unpleasant in heat, so take the shuttle.

Who the square suits

It suits a visitor who likes reading buildings and wants one open, free stop with a working post office hall and a rebuilt park attached. The square asks little of you and gives back a single architectural set piece, so judge the morning on what you add to it: the mosque walkthrough, the stained glass, a museum.

Best time to go

The square is at its best at dusk. The fountain runs its coloured light-and-music show 20:00 to 22:00, and before that the square is pale paving, palms and the tower photograph. If you are lining up that shot from an older picture, note that the fountain was moved across Avenue Hassan II during the 2020 theatre works, so it no longer stands where the photograph shows it.

Come on a weekday. The Slaoui museum closes Sundays and Mondays, which catches a lot of weekend cruise calls.

Planning the stop

Weekdays open the most doors here, and anything with a door is worth checking before you walk over. See the Casablanca guide and the Casablanca hotel search.