Chefchauen – the blue town in Morocco

I have never been there yet, but I have heard from many people that this town is the most beautiful and magical place on the Earth. I can agree with them in houndred procent just looking at the photos of Chefchauen. I can understand that photos never give you such a great substancial feeling like spending time there and seeing everything by your own eyes. Unfortunately, for now it is all what I have.

It is sure that to get to know more about each city, we have to find out a little bit about the history of the place. In this way, we can understand better the rules and customs which control the society and also Chefchauen as a town. For sure one of the first questions which appear in our mind is: Why the whole city is blue? Well, it is quite interesting and I am going to explain it to you. According a legend, once Chefchauen was ruled by a lord who disliked so much insects of all kinds that he ordered to paint the whole city blue. After, when the city had been painted, all insects disappeared very fast and the lord could enjoy your time walking down the Chefchauen streets in peace, admiring beautiful views of his city. Unfortunately, it is only a legend, there is no evidence, confirmation in the literature or other historical books that the story took place in reality.

Now more about facts. The city was funded in the XV century and was inhabited by Muslim and Jewish forced to come there from the territory of Al- Andalus. For that reason, the major part of the town is very similar to the Andalusian ones. In the central part of Chefchauen is located Plaza Uta al-Hammam where we can also find an alcazaba which is a Moorish fortification typical in Spain and a mosque.

Knowing that the town is inhabited in major part by people who had come there  from Spain, we can suggest that the most spoken language in this area together with Arabic is also Spanish, but it is not the only one reason. Fothermore, a significant impact on the fact has had a localization of the town, because Chefchetuan is situated extremely close to the Spanish territory like Ceuta or Melilla.

In this extotic town we can discover many places where the past is visible all the time, all houses, streets and professions which are occupied by inhabitants are a reflections of the old times.