of Father Renato Zilio
Essaouira, or the art of composing. To bring together different worlds, cultures, sensitivities. The Moroccan city, on the edge of the Atlantic, takes your soul. Its sea scent penetrates your lungs, inebriates you. The ocean waves, pushed by the trade winds, continue to dance high on its sides: making it an ideal place for surfing and windsurfing. Where the sea becomes challenge, elegance and passion.
In the lively squares, with shops full of fabrics and carpets of a thousand colors, spices, specialties of all kinds, the calls of seagulls and the music of street artists blend together. They intertwine. An evocative and powerful hymn to life and its diversity: this is Essaouira, a world heritage site according to UNESCO.
Powerful ocher walls recall its third or fourth rebirth. When, in the mid-18th century, Sultan Muhammad III decided to make it, with the help of a great French architect, a fortified naval base, a royal port. It became a perfect example of military architecture, which enriched it with walls, towers, bastions, doors and cannons, managing to perfectly combine the Arab-Muslim culture with the European one. The old Mogador, of Portuguese origin in the 15th century, transformed into Essaouira, that is, “the well-drawn”. Enlivened by a large Jewish community, more than the Muslim residents, Essaouira boasted of being the only Moroccan port open to foreign trade for inland caravans. Today, a gigantic canvas celebrates his identity. Displayed in the central square, it proclaims in large letters: “Essaouira, formerly a Phoenician emporium, becomes a city-world, a vibrant crossroads where different cultural traditions meet and mix, in a unique web of diversity and human richness.” Splendid praise to complexity. To the art of composing, of including the different, of making a new synthesis of it. Here is a formidable, very relevant lesson for today.
At dawn, the fishing port, in a still sleeping city, is feverish with preparations with all the fresh fish that has just arrived. Here its ancient life pulsates. Later, it is as if inundated by tourists: another fishing, that of traders. The picturesque alleys and squares, the bright light, the tranquil atmosphere and the foaming of the waves, which in the past have attracted painters, sculptors and other artists, form the ideal backdrop for the Gnaoua International Music Festival. Voilà, again, a sensorial experience, in which elements of the African Gnaoua musical tradition, from the distant origins of slaves, blend with other cultures, giving life to a one-of-a-kind show. New rhythms and new energies overwhelm you.
The Church is not far away, outside the walls. With its white and blue colors on the outside, like the evocative seaside residences, it introduces you to a world that smells of ancient times and peace. The altar, the ambo, the furniture will enchant you, all in fine tuya wood, typical of the place. And then a myriad of old statues with their “For Grace Received”, in marble, dated to the early twentieth century: Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Curé of Ars, the Madonna of Lourdes… It was the church of the French. Curiously, mats and carpets everywhere, like in mosques. At Sunday mass, there are tourists who flock from all over… Thus, one never knows, as in the Gospel, what the catch of the day will be, how the assembly will be composed. This also makes Essaouira a world city. Surprising and loved, for real.