Our very first stop on a city tour of Casablanca was at this church. It’s a Roman-Catholic church, and I was pleased to see how tolerant this Muslem-dominant country was of people with other faiths. This church was mostly built for French citizens living in Morocco after the second World War but continues to be used as a house of worship to this day.
It was built between 1954-56, with design by architect Achille Dangleterre and engineer Gaston Zimmer. It’s a modernist structure, consisting mostly of concrete and glass. The glass is what makes a visit to the church memorable, as it there are numerous stained-glass windows designed by famed artist Gabriel Loire. The windows tell the story of the Virgin Mary.
The interior is large and spacious, with most of the light coming through the stained-glass windows. These windows cover an impressive 800 sq meters (almost 9,000 sq ft). I visited on a cloudy, rainy day, so the lighting was not optimal. But still, I could enjoy the lovely details of the windows, a sampling of which is shown below:
In the front courtyard of the church is a small shrine to the Virgin Mary, set into a small cave…
The church plays host to occasional concerts (check on its Facebook page for more info); I think it would be a nice venue for that. It’s located just north of the Habous Quarter, near Casablanca’s Royal Palace. There is no admission fee.
