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Palace Bahia is one of the unmissable stops of your trip to Marrakech. We understood it as soon as we started to organize our itinerary to discover the city. We were undecided about many stages, we wondered if it was worth it or if maybe we could devote ourselves to other things, but no… We never doubted Palace Bahia, we had to go.
A little history of Palace Bahia
Bahia, means “beautiful” and this palace was built in 1860 by the Grand Vizier, Si Moussa and enriched in the early 1900s by a former slave, the vizier Abu Ahmed. Eight hectares of beauty and decorations for which this palace is considered a masterpiece of Moroccan art.
Palace Bahia was the home of Ahmad along with his four wives and 24 concubines, but it seems it was dedicated to Lalla, his favorite, the beautifulnote.
Why visit Palace Bahia
What will bewitch you of this palace will be the zouak ceilings, the wood meticulously hand painted and then… Inlaid tiles, mosaics and colorful tiles that cover each surface.
The stained glass windows are crossed by the light that creates wonderful games and reflections on the beautiful and large doors.
Le petit riad
The first room in which you will find yourself is the petit riad: it starts from a large hall in which, the first thing that jumps to the eye is the imposing structure of the fireplace, but here, as in the whole palace, Don’t forget to look at every wall and especially raise your eyes to the beautiful ceilings.
Immediately after, you enter the small courtyard, le petit cour, which seems only to anticipate what awaits you in the next environment. It is a small courtyard.
Le Gran Cour
It is the first open space you will encounter that will leave you breathless: completely covered in Carrara marble and decorated with beautiful yellow and blue motifs.
Here today everyone enjoys the sun that makes the courtyard shine and takes the most instagrammable photos, taking advantage of all this light and these beautiful colors but at the time under that sun suffered the subjects waiting for the vizier.
Le grand riad
is instead a spectacular green and lush garden with many species of plants and birds. Very beautiful structures the fully colored wood surrounding the entire garden.
The harem
is the ultimate environment of this journey through time and space through Palace Bahia but it is Lalla’s apartments that are particularly striking for zouak and silk panels.
How much it costs to visit Palace Bahia
Palace Bahia costs 70 dinars per person, that is 7 eurosbut remember that the palace is only open until 17.
It is incredible how much the head can travel when you are in such fascinating and perhaps even magical environments: you find yourself imagining a story of tormented love, jealousy, revenge, deception, gifts and unbridled luxury. A man, a woman. A starry sky and a palace of light and color, flooded with music and incense
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