MARRAKESH - Morocco (part III)

Maybe Monsieur Majorelle knew the story of this colour, a passionate one. First, highly scorned because associated to barbarian tribes and then, from the end of the Middle Ages, celebrated as light that comes from God. The mourning and grief that darkened the Madonna’s cloak in the deepest and sad colours, starting from the XII century, were expressed just with the blue that, little by little, became brighter and charming. Obtained from the precious and expensive lapis lazuli, it was used parsimoniously by the painters of the XVII century, who still discussed the mystery of colours until science, a century later, explained it with laws and numbers.

There are other gardens in Marrakesh, once one of the greenest towns in North Africa. They celebrate the Islamic garden with its rules and its features. A tradition spread from ancient times, from the South of Spain to India through Sicily, Morocco, Tunisia and Afghanistan. Each of them has developed a different story, starting exactly from the word that designates “garden”. In Morocco, just one word can not express its variety: a single name could not contain the extent of an orchard and the quiet freshness of a courtyard. Here a short-list (1):
- Agdal: is a Berber word that once designated public meadows and now large, enclosed orchards, artificially irrigated;
- Arsa: is an urban, irrigated apple-orchard;
- Jnan: are cultivated fields in the desert oasis;
- Riyad: indicates a small patio in an urban, private house. It is paved with marble, tiles or bricks, has a small pavilion or fountain in the centre and it is surrounded by galleries. Perfumed plants, symmetrically planted, are privileged.

In Marrakesh there are samples for all of them. The Aguedal Gardens, a vast orchard with lemons, oranges, apricots and olive trees; the Menara Gardens, an imperial garden with an enormous pool and an enchanting pavilion surrounded by olive and fruit trees; the Palace Bahia, or The Palace of the Favourite, with courtyards paved with marble and zellij tile works, planted with cypresses, orange trees and jasmine and embellished with pools; the Palmeraie or Palm Grove that, according to a legend, grew from the stones left on the ground by soldiers of a 11th-century Almohad sultan and once was irrigated by khettaras, an ingenious system that conveyed water from the High Atlas Mountains. Or, you just have to stroll to see, against the ramparts that encircles the old town, the shadow of tall palms sketched by the same relentless and untameable sun that changed the life of Monsieur Majorelle.

Le Jardin de Majorelle was a surprise that did not finish when I left it. A year later, I was in Seville, Spain. From the top of the Giralda tower I thought to the minaret that had served as its model: the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh. In my bag I had a small book I have just purchased, the story of Le Jardin de Majorelle.


Gardens visited in Marrakesh, Morocco on December 2005:
Le Jardine de Majorelle, Menara Gardens, Le Palais de la Bahia.

Photos:
Travel in a garden;
For the paintings Itinéraires marocains: regards de peintres, Maurice Arama,
Part I : Le souk aux tapis à Marrakech, huile sur toile, M.B.A. de Nancy
Part III: Le Marchè de Tanger, 1918 huile

Further readings:
Majorelle, a Moroccan Oasis, Pierre Bergé and Madison Cox, Thames&Hudson, 1999
Itinéraires marocains: regards de peintres, Maurice Arama, avant-propos de Gaston Diehl Paris, Jaguar 1991.
Bleu, historie d’une couleur, Michel Pastoureau ; traduction of Fabrizio Ascari, Milano Ponte delle Grazie, 2002.
Il Giardino Islamico, Luigi Zangheri, Brunella Lorenzi, Nausikaa M. Rahmati, Firenze, L.S. Olschki, 2006. (1)
Il giardino islamico: architettura, natura paesaggio, Attilio Petruccioli, Milano Electa 1994.