Although the Medina and the Kasbah are the tourist source of income, Tangier has more up its sleeve. The modern business district can rival with many European cities and Tangier is surrounded by 4 major industrial parks home to a diversified industry.
The “Centre Commercial” has a design philosophy similar to that of Abu Dhabi mall. Under ground parking, two floors with shops, a hotel tower and two residential towers.
McDonald, Starbucks and more…
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Trainstation -
High speed train to Casablanca.
The glitzy towers and 4 lane roads miss the atmosphere of the older city so we slowly make our way back towards the Medina.
Sour Meegazine, public square, overlooking the bay and beach, probably not the battle location for the guns, but merely a display.
The below gun caught our attention since we saw “AMSTELODAMI” engraved in the bottom ring. Frits took detailed photo’s of the complete engraving and did some research.
The yellow lifting eyes are cast in the shape of a dolphin. The actual name for a gun’s lifting eye is; dolphin.
Cyprianus Crans, son of Jan Crans and Jannetje Schulp was born in 1703 and became a castor at the gun and bell foundry in Enkhuizen in 1724. In 1734 he moved to Amsterdam, one of the richest cities at the time and joined the City Foundry (Stadsgieterij) were he became rather famous for both quality and quantity of his work. It was peacetime and most of the work were church bells, although the East India Company (VOC – the worlds largest company at the time) required a steady supply of mainly light artillery. Purchase orders for heavy guns came mainly from Portugal. Several of Crans’ artillery have survived in Tangier and in the Army Museum in Lisbon. It is a centuries old tradition amongst the bronze casters guild to “sign” in latin with the name, location and year of production.
Latin inscription: ME FECIT CYPRIANUS CRANS JANSZ AMSTELODAMI ANNO 1937. Translation: I AM MADE BY CYPRIANUS CRANS IN AMSTERDAM IN THE YEAR 1937. The inscription JANSZ is most likely a reference to his father, Jan Crans.
On a side note; the value of the East India Company or VOC at the time in today’s US dollars would be US$ 7 Trillion. That would be Apple – Alphabet – Amazon – Microsoft and Saudi Aramco (The world 5 largest companies) combined!!!
The local TV station was already wearing face masks, a sign of the times to come.
In the shadow of the city walls was a street with small blacksmiths and metal-shops making ornaments, fences, gates and window protection. It had a similar atmosphere as old-time Mussafah in Abu Dhabi, albeit less busy.
We entered the Medina through one of the Southern Gates “Bab Al Fans”.
Roaming the shopping streets in the Medina.
Bab dar Dbagh, the Northern gate closest to the marina.
On March 20, 2020 Morocco went into lockdown because of COVID. This “State of Emergency” would last for almost 3 months. We were confined to the boat and the shortest route to the nearest supermarket. Oops………..