Fes Jdid — The Royal Palace District, Explained

Fes Jdid, literally 'New Fes', is only new by the standards of a city as old as Fes: the Marinid sultans founded it in 1276, five centuries after the original medina of Fes el-Bali. They built it as a walled royal and military city to house the palace, the administration, the army and, later, the Jewish community, deliberately set apart from the crowded old town. Today it forms the western part of the historic city, wedged between Fes el-Bali and the French-built Ville Nouvelle.

Most tour groups pass through Fes Jdid only to reach the famous old medina, which is precisely why it repays a slower look. Here you get the imperial face of Fes, the golden gates and parade grounds of the makhzen, alongside the intimate, layered heritage of the Mellah, and you get it with far fewer crowds than the tanneries and souks a kilometre east. This guide walks you through the sights and ties them into a coherent half-day.

The single image everyone takes away from Fes Jdid is the entrance to the Royal Palace, the Dar el Makhzen, on the wide Place des Alaouites. Seven monumental doors of polished brass, framed in blue and green zellige and carved cedar, gleam along the palace wall, restored to a mirror shine and set off against the ochre ramparts. It is one of the most photographed spots in Fes, and, because the palace is a working royal residence, the gates are the whole show: you cannot go inside.

That limitation is easy to accept once you are standing in front of them. The square is open and free, best photographed in the morning when the brass catches the light and the crowds are thin, and there is no ticket or gate. Behind the wall lies a vast complex of palaces and gardens, closed to the public, so plan on ten to twenty minutes admiring the doors and the craftsmanship of the restored bronze and tilework rather than expecting a tour.

Immediately beside the palace lies the Mellah, the Jewish quarter that gave the word 'mellah' to every Jewish district in Morocco; Fes's was the first, established in the fourteenth century. Its architecture is unmistakable: unlike the blank-walled Muslim medina, the Mellah's houses turn outward with wooden balconies and larger windows overhanging the street, a legacy of the community that lived here for centuries. Walking its main street and side lanes is the most atmospheric part of Fes Jdid.

The heritage anchors are the restored Ibn Danan Synagogue, a seventeenth-century synagogue with a fine painted interior and a mikveh below, and the Jewish cemetery on the slope, a field of whitewashed tombs with a small museum, both asking a modest donation rather than a fixed fee. Together they tell the story of a community that was central to Fes for six hundred years, and they make the Mellah a very different experience from anywhere in the old medina.

Fes Jdid is stitched together by its mechouars, the great walled parade grounds where sultans once reviewed troops and received subjects. The Vieux Mechouar (Old Mechouar) and Petit Mechouar are broad open squares between monumental gates, quiet now but full of the geometry of imperial ceremony, and they make natural walking corridors between the palace, the gardens and the old medina. The Bab Dekaken and Bab Segma gates frame them.

The quarter's living artery is the Grande Rue de Fes Jdid, a covered and open commercial street that runs the length of the district, lined with everyday shops, textile sellers, food stalls and small cafes serving locals rather than tourists. It is a low-pressure place to browse and snack, a contrast to the hard sell of the main medina souks, and it delivers you toward the Bab Bou Jeloud end of Fes el-Bali if you keep walking east.

On the northern edge of Fes Jdid, between it and the old medina, lie the Jnan Sbil gardens, historic royal gardens that are now the city's finest public green space. Free to enter, they offer shaded avenues, a lake, palm and bamboo groves and benches, a genuine cool retreat from the noise and heat of the surrounding streets. They are the logical pause point on a Fes Jdid walk, roughly halfway between the palace gates and the entrance to Fes el-Bali.

The gardens keep daytime hours and usually close one day a week for maintenance, so it is worth checking before you build them into the middle of a route. They are covered in full, with layout and best times, in the dedicated Jnan Sbil gardens guide. From their eastern gate it is a short walk to Bab Bou Jeloud, the blue gate that is the grand entrance to the ancient medina.

It helps to be clear on how the two historic cities differ, because visitors constantly conflate them. Fes el-Bali is the original medina, founded in the ninth century, home to the Kairaouine mosque and university, the Chouara tanneries, the great medersas and the labyrinth of thousands of lanes that is the real reason people come to Fes. Fes Jdid is the thirteenth-century royal add-on: the palace, the Mellah, the mechouars, on a comparatively legible grid.

In practice, Fes Jdid is easier to navigate, far less crowded and takes a half-day, while Fes el-Bali is a dense, disorienting full-day-plus experience where a guide or a good map genuinely helps. The two adjoin, so the natural plan is to walk Fes Jdid first, cross the Jnan Sbil gardens and enter Fes el-Bali at Bab Bou Jeloud. For finding your way in the old medina afterwards, see the Fes medina navigation guide.

A logical Fes Jdid walk of about 1.5 to 2 kilometres starts at Place des Alaouites for the palace gates while the light is good, then works into the Mellah for the synagogue, the balconied streets and the cemetery viewpoint. From there you pick up the Grande Rue and the mechouars, cross into the Jnan Sbil gardens for a shaded rest, and finish at Bab Bou Jeloud, ready to plunge into the old medina or to turn back for the Ville Nouvelle.

The terrain is largely flat and the distances short, which makes this one of the more relaxed historic walks in the imperial cities. Come in the morning to catch the palace brass at its best and to leave the whole afternoon for Fes el-Bali. The blue gate that ends the route, with its history and the photo timing that suits it, is covered in the Bab Bou Jeloud guide. If the heat is fierce, break the walk in the Jnan Sbil gardens, the one substantial patch of shade between the palace and the old medina, before pressing on to Bab Bou Jeloud.