Place des Ferblantiers: The Lantern-Makers' Square

Overview

Place des Ferblantiers is the square of the ferblantiers — the tinsmiths whose workshops still ring it, hammering and piercing sheet metal into the pierced lanterns, lamps and trays that light half the riads in the city. Open and unhurried by medina standards, edged with cafés and framed by the Bab Berrima gate into El Badi Palace, it's a rare place in the old town where you can simply sit and watch a craft at work.

The square sits on the northern edge of the Mellah, and metalworking has clustered here for generations. Around its sides, small open-fronted workshops turn out the perforated brass and tin lanterns that are one of Marrakech's signature exports — pierced with star and arabesque patterns so that, lit from within, they throw lace-like shadows across a wall. You can watch craftsmen cutting, punching and soldering by hand, and buy directly from the makers.

One side of the square is closed by Bab Berrima, the monumental gate that leads through to the ruins of the El Badi Palace, so the two sights are effectively joined — most people pass through the square on their way to the palace and its storks. The Mellah, with its spice market and synagogues, opens off the other side, making this a natural crossroads of the southern medina.

Compared with the crush of the souks, the Ferblantiers feels calm: there's room to breathe, café terraces to take a mint tea on, and the steady percussion of hammers as a soundtrack. It's at its best in the late afternoon and early evening, when the light softens and the shopkeepers hang their finished lanterns out lit, turning the whole square into a display of glowing metalwork.