La Sqala Bastion

La Sqala is a coastal bastion at the northern edge of the Old Medina of Casablanca, along Boulevard des Almohades in Morocco's Casablanca-Settat region. It was built in 1769 on the orders of Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah as part of the Alaouite fortification of the harbour of Dar el Beida, and its walls and gun platform were designed to protect the port from naval attack. Rough stone ramparts face the Atlantic, and old cannons still point out over the sea from the battlements. The bastion draws on the earlier Portuguese coastal fortifications of the Moroccan coast, but the present structure is Alaouite work, with thick walls, a powder store and a ramp up to the firing platform. For long periods it served military and storage purposes, and the harbour area below was a centre of trade. The fortress fell into disrepair in the 20th century, and a restoration programme in the 1990s repaired the walls, laid out the interior as a walled garden with palms, orange trees and fountains, and converted the former arsenal rooms into a restaurant and cafe. Today the garden, entered through a gate in the walls, offers a calm space beside the busy medina, and the battlements can be walked for views of the sea and port. A small exhibit space and a few preserved rooms recall the building's military past. The garden is free to enter, and the restaurant is open from around 8:30am to 11pm, serving Moroccan dishes. Because the surviving structure is relatively compact, the visit is usually combined with a walk through the Old Medina and to the nearby Bab Marrakech and Ould El Hamra minaret. The bastion remains one of the few visible reminders of the 18th-century harbour defences.