Place Seffarine — The Coppersmiths' Square of Fes

You often hear Place Seffarine before you see it. The square is ringed with open-fronted metalworking shops, and from dawn the coppersmiths — the seffarine — beat sheets of brass and copper over anvils and forms, filling the space with a continuous, ringing percussion that echoes off the surrounding walls. It is one of the oldest crafts in Fes carried on in one of its oldest settings, and unlike a staged demonstration, this is simply the sound of people at work, as it has been here for hundreds of years.

At the centre stands an old plane tree, offering a patch of shade, and around it the everyday choreography of the trade plays out: raw metal stacked in doorways, half-finished pots hanging from hooks, sparks and polishing at the back of the shops, and finished pieces gleaming out front. It is a compact, intense, wholly authentic corner of the medina, and one of the best places in Fes to simply stand and watch a living craft rather than tick off a monument.

The range of what is beaten out around the square is wider than it first appears. Alongside the decorative trays, teapots and lanterns that catch a visitor's eye, the smiths make and repair the heavy-duty vessels of Moroccan domestic and communal life: tagine bases, enormous couscous steamers, water jugs, hammam buckets and the giant cauldrons used to heat water in the bathhouses. Much of the work is functional and made for locals, which is exactly what keeps the trade alive rather than propped up by tourism.

Decoration ranges from plain, hard-wearing utility ware to finely engraved and chased pieces, with patterns hammered or incised into the surface. Prices depend on size, metal, weight and the amount of handwork, and pieces can often be made or personalised to order if you have time to wait. The table below gives a rough sense of typical items and price bands as a mid-2026 guide, to orient your bargaining — always confirm and negotiate on the spot, as quality and weight vary enormously.

Overlooking the square is the Seffarine Medersa, one of the oldest Quranic colleges in Fes, founded in the thirteenth century under the Marinid dynasty. It predates the more famous and more decorated medersas of the city, and it is plainer and more worn, but it has the distinction of great age and of still being connected to religious study rather than fully given over to tourism. Its modest courtyard and student rooms are a quiet contrast to the clamour of the square outside.

Access can be unpredictable — it is sometimes open to visitors for a small fee and sometimes not, depending on how it is being used — so treat a look inside as a bonus rather than a guarantee. If the door is open, step in for a few minutes to see an austere, early example of the medersa form before the tradition reached its ornate peak. Either way, its presence on the square is a reminder that this was a place of learning as well as labour, scholarship and craft side by side in the medieval city.

Place Seffarine's great practical value is its position. It lies close to the Kairaouine mosque and university, the spiritual and scholarly heart of Fes, and on the natural route towards the Chouara tanneries, so it slots neatly into the classic medina walking circuit rather than requiring a special trip. Many visitors pass through it without realising it is a named landmark; knowing it is there lets you pause and appreciate it properly.

A logical loop links the square to the surrounding trades and monuments: the tanneries for leather, the Kairaouine for the mosque and the historic Qarawiyyin library nearby, the souks for shopping, and the river crossings towards the Andalusian quarter beyond. Because the medina's lanes are famously disorienting, it helps to fix Seffarine in your mental map as a hub between these sights — our Fes medina navigation guide shows how the pieces connect. The table below suggests nearby stops you can string together in a half-day.

The square is free to wander and one of the best photo opportunities in the medina, but a little courtesy goes a long way. The smiths are working, not performing, so ask before photographing someone close up, and expect that a small tip or a purchase is appreciated in return for portraits and attention. The noise, sparks and heavy tools mean you should keep children close and stand clear of active hammering and polishing; it is a workshop, not a display case.

If you want to buy, the usual souk rules apply: browse a few shops to gauge quality and price, expect to haggle, and judge pieces by weight and finish rather than shine alone. Hand-worked engraved items are worth more than machine-stamped tourist ware, and the smiths can tell you which is which if you ask. Buying here means buying close to the source, often directly from the maker, which is both better value and a more meaningful souvenir than the same object further along the tourist trail.

Watching the coppersmiths a while, you start to see the stages of the craft laid out around the square. Flat sheets of brass or copper are cut and then beaten over anvils and shaped forms, the metal worked cold and repeatedly annealed in the forge to keep it from cracking as it hardens under the hammer. Bases and bodies are raised, seams are joined, handles and spouts are fitted, and surfaces are then decorated — hammered with texture, chased with patterns, or engraved by hand — before a final polishing brings up the shine. It is skilled, physical, noisy work, often passed down through families over generations.

That process is why the pieces vary so much in price and quality, and why it pays to look closely before buying. Hand-raised and hand-engraved work carries the slight irregularities and depth of real craftsmanship; cheaper tourist ware is often machine-stamped, thinner and more uniform, and will not wear the same way. Weight is a useful guide, as heavier-gauge metal signals a better piece, and the smiths themselves will usually show you the difference if you ask. Buying here, close to the forge that made it, means both better value and the satisfaction of a souvenir with a visible, audible origin — you will have heard it being made.