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Mohammed V Square () is a public square of historical and symbolic significance located in central
Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...
, Morocco. It was established in 1916 at the beginning of the French protectorate in Morocco under Resident-general Hubert Lyautey, on a design by architects Henri Prost and .


Name

The square is known officially as Mohammed V Square, in honor of the former king of Morocco Mohammed V. The square is known popularly as "Pigeons' Square" (, french: place aux pigeons) due to the heavy presence of pigeons. It used to be known by different names such as Main Square (french: grande place), Square of France (french: place de France), Square of Victory (french: place de la Victoire), Administrative Square (french: place administrative), and Marshal Lyautey Square (french: place du Maréchal Lyautey).


History

The area south of the Medina quarter that is now Mohammed V Square had been occupied by barracks of the French colonial forces before the plan of Henri Prost and to establish a large square there was implemented in 1916. It became the heart of the expanding "European city" () or modern expansion of Casablanca. Resident-general Hubert Lyautey, who was from
Nancy, France Nancy ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Nanzisch'' is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the northeastern Departments of France, French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It was the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, which was Lorraine and Barrois, an ...
, had that city's 18th-century
Place Stanislas Place Stanislas is a large pedestrianised square in the French city of Nancy, in the Lorraine historic region. Built between 1752 and 1756 on the orders of Stanisław Leszczyński, the square is one of oldest examples of an architecturally consis ...
serve as inspiration for Prost's urban design. Buildings were erected around the square in the 1920s and 1930s, generally in the
Moorish Revival architecture Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centur ...
style championed by Henri Prost and his contemporaries. This style combined French design principles with traditional Mauro-Andalusian architectural traditions, which lent the colonial administrative buildings legitimacy. Clockwise from the square's eastern side: * Court House (, ), architect , 1923 * (former Military Circle, repurposed in 1956), architect Marius Boyer, 1925 * Bank Al-Maghrib (, formerly the
State Bank of Morocco The State Bank of Morocco (french: Banque d'État du Maroc) was a quasi-central bank established in 1907 following the Algeciras Conference, to stabilize the Moroccan currency and serve as a vehicle for European and especially French influence ...
's Casablanca branch), architect Edmond Brion, 1937 * Central Post Office (, ), architect Adrien Laforgue, 1920 * Wilaya Building (, formerly City Hall), architect Marius Boyer, 1937 * French consulate-general (former Military Commander's Mansion, repurposed in 1956), architect Albert Laprade, 1922 On August 8, 1943,
Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
, accompanied by General Georges Catroux, commissary of the Coordination of Muslim Affairs and governor general of Algeria, and Gabriel Puaux, resident general of France in Morocco, delivered a speech from the square, which was also broadcast by radio. The square was further transformed in 2020 with the construction on its western side of the Grand Theatre (french: Grand Théâtre de Casablanca), designed by architect Christian de Portzamparc. On that occasion the square was entirely renovated and repaved.


Monuments and fountain

During the colonial era, the square was punctuated by two major works of public sculpture: on the eastern end, the
Monument aux Morts Monuments aux Morts are French war memorials established to commemorate the losses of World War I. After the end of the 1914–1918 war there was a frenzy to build memorials to commemorate those who had been killed and it has been calculated that ...
, officially named , sculpted by Paul Landowski and inaugurated by Resident-general Lyautey on ; and further west in front of the courthouse, the
equestrian statue of Hubert Lyautey The Equestrian statue of Hubert Lyautey is a public sculpture that commemorates Hubert Lyautey, the first Resident-general of the French protectorate in Morocco, in Casablanca, Morocco. History The statue was created by French sculptor Fran ...
by
François Cogné François Cogné (10 August 1876 9 April 1952) was a French sculptor. His work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1924 Summer Olympics. He created an equestrian statue of Hubert Lyautey, the first French ''r éside ...
, inaugurated in 1938. The former was relocated to France in 1961 and reerected in 1965 as the in Senlis; the latter was moved at the time of independence to French ground in the front yard of the nearby , which in 1959 became the French Consulate-general. In 1976, a large circular fountain, also known as the “pigeons’ fountain” (french: fontaine aux pigeons), was erected at the center of the square, west of Hassan II Avenue. In 2020 with the construction of the Grand Theater on the square’s western end, the much-liked fountain was relocated to the other side of the avenue, close to the original position of the Lyautey statue.


See also

*
United Nations Square (Casablanca) United Nations Square ( ar, ساحة الأمم المتحدة, french: Place des Nations-Unies) is a public square in the center of Casablanca, Morocco. It has been central in the history of Casablanca. History The area outside the walls o ...
*
Arab League Park The Arab League Park () is an urban park in Casablanca, Morocco. It is located in the center of the city, west of Hassan II Boulevard, east of Roudani Boulevard and Algiers Street, and south east of the Church of the Sacred Heart. The park covers ...
*
Avenue Mohammed V, Rabat Avenue Mohammed V, sometimes referred to by its old name Avenue Dar al-Makhzen (), is a major thoroughfare in downtown Rabat, Morocco. Its main section was created under the French Protectorate in Morocco and mostly developed between 1915 and 19 ...
* Mohammed V of Morocco


References

{{Commons category, Place Mohammed V, Casablanca Casablanca All stub articles