Things to do · Tangier
For a few decades Tangier was a free port and a free-for-all — an International Zone that drew writers, painters, exiles and spies. That cosmopolitan Tangier still lingers in its museums, churches and cliff-top cafés. Here is how to trace the city's literary and international past.
7 experiences
The only U.S. National Historic Landmark on foreign soil, this medina building marks ties dating to 1777, when Morocco was among the first nations to recognise American independence. A wing is devoted to the writer Paul Bowles.
Author of The Sheltering Sky, Bowles made Tangier his home for over half a century and became the city's literary anchor. The American Legation's Bowles wing gathers photographs, letters and recordings of the music he collected across Morocco.
William Burroughs wrote much of Naked Lunch in Tangier, and the cafés of the Petit Socco were the social hub of the 'Interzone' he immortalised. A coffee on that square is the closest thing to time travel in the city.
The cliff-top café that hosted the era's writers and, later, the Beats and the Rolling Stones. Its terraces above the strait remain the definitive spot to nurse a mint tea and feel the literary Tangier of legend.
The famous bookshop on Boulevard Pasteur has been a meeting point for writers since 1949, frequented by Bowles, Genet and Tennessee Williams. It survives as a working bilingual bookstore and small cultural salon.
This late-19th-century Anglican church blends British and Moorish design, with the Lord's Prayer carved in Arabic above the chancel. Its garden cemetery holds the graves of notable foreign residents of old Tangier.
Where Henri Matisse stayed and painted his celebrated Tangier views, including the window scene of St Andrew's. The restored hotel preserves the room and the vantage that helped fix Tangier in the modern artistic imagination.
From 1923 to 1956 Tangier was an International Zone governed by multiple foreign powers, with light regulation, cheap living and a tolerant atmosphere. That freedom drew writers such as Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, Jean Genet and Tennessee Williams, making the city a mid-century literary haven.
It is a museum in the Tangier medina housed in the former American diplomatic mission — the only U.S. National Historic Landmark located abroad. It documents the long Moroccan-American relationship that began in 1777 and includes a wing dedicated to the writer and composer Paul Bowles.
Paul Bowles settled in Tangier in 1947 and lived in the city until his death in 1999. The American Legation Museum's Bowles wing is the best place to encounter his life, writing and the Moroccan music he recorded over many years.
Yes. Café Hafa on the cliffs and the café terraces of the Petit Socco still operate and still trade on their literary history. The Librairie des Colonnes bookshop, a long-time writers' meeting point, is also open and worth a visit.
See it with a local
We'll build a private, guided plan around the experiences you care about — with a driver, hand-picked riads and a written quote in 24 hours.
Contact us for pricingMore cities