The role of Portuguese heritage in local development: Asilah and El Jadida (Morocco)

Abstract

This text propose a dynamic interpretation of the "heritage phenomenon" which is involving the architectural and urban inheritances of the Portuguese presence inside the nowadays Morocco (1415-1769). This on going process integrates the heritage into a strategic (re)design of urban territories. The process is an inclusive one, which is concerning several scales, from a really local level to international and conceptual ones.The attention is focusing mainly the public spaces, because of their visibility and their roles into the landscape, and the landscape planning. At the same time, public spaces were submitted to less transformation than private ones; therefore they are the major spatial link to the Lusitanian presence.Portuguese heritage is nowadays a global player in the Moroccan process that's updating to the 21st century the image of the Kingdom. The targets of this new image are the international public but also, and even more, the national one. Portuguese heritage in Morocco is a long lasting one but, at the same time, it is so old that we can say that's a "past of the past", completely disconnected to the nowadays identity and post-colonial issues; there are no direct links with their contemporary existence. ; Les intérêts du Portugal pour l'Afrique du Nord, entre le XIV e et le XVI e siècle, étaient dus à la volonté militaire de renforcer ses positions territoriales, de protéger et contrôler ses routes commerciales, à la volonté d'expansion impériale mais aussi aux mythes de la "reconquista" de la péninsule ibérique (Bravo Nieto, 2004, 7) et de Jérusalem (Carvalho, 1942, 26, Cortesão, 1993, 22 mais aussi Oliveira Marques, 1998, 120). La construction de fortifications côtières fut subordonnée à la volonté politique de la Couronne portugaise ; cette volonté externe au territoire a réglé leurs implantations, aussi bien au niveau géopolitique qu'au niveau architectural et urbain. Les Portugais ont donc structuré une armature côtière de bases militaires et commerciales qui, depuis la prise de Ceuta en 1415, ...