LA MAMOUNIA

Text by Sara Magro

It is not enough to say that La Mamounia in Marrakech is a luxury hotel. Nor to dub it one of the finest five-star hotels in Morocco. More appropriate would be to herald it as an international monument of hospitality. In October 2023, this legend celebrated a century in business, and as befits historical milestones, it did so by inviting friends, clients and VIPs from all over the world for three days of spectacular events: gala dinners, live performances, concerts (Mika was among the musicians on stage), fireworks. And during the party the new Chandelier du Centenaire was unveiled, almost nine metres in length and composed of 3,000 blown glass elements suspended less than a metre from the lobby floor. Nicknamed le bijou de la Grand Dame, it recalls the multi-strand necklaces of Berber women and was designed by the Jouin Monku studio, which also oversaw the hotel’s latest renovation.

Let’s go back to the beginning. In the 18th century, the then Sultan Mohammed Ben Abdallah gave his son a lush 13-hectare orchard with olive, rose and orange trees on the occasion of his wedding. From then on, the Arset El Mamoun (as the garden was known) became a place of recreation and festivities for the royal family until 1923, when the Moroccan Railway Company, also owned by the king, decided to build a hotel there. The project was entrusted to the French architects Henri Prost and Antoine Marchisio, who constructed a princely palace set in a park and surrounded by protecting walls, just a few minutes from the Place Jemaa-el-Fnaa, the heart of the city.

It was designed to be Morocco’s representative hotel, welcoming celebrities and visiting dignitaries and offering impeccable service. And so it was from the outset – just look at the guest list: Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Charles De Gaulle, Nelson Mandela, Charlie Chaplin, Marcello Mastroianni, Francis Ford Coppola, the Rolling Stones,l Tom Cruise, Salma Hayek, Sharon Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, Juliette Binoche. Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berger also stayed here while looking for a house in Marrakech. This is just to give an idea: the full, endlessly fascinating list is much longer.  And it is these guests that over the years have brought their individual style to create La Mamounia’s legendary and mysterious atmosphere that goes way beyond the inlays, the precious woods, the marble and columns, the simple façade and the gardens.

The secret of this wonderful five-star hotel is its ability to evolve and keep up with the times.

It’s easy to get lost in nostalgia for the glories of the past, but hotels are places to be lived in rather than museums to be looked at and not touched, and they must adapt to guests’ tastes and needs. Of the many interventions, one of the most substantial was that of the architect Jacques Garcia in 2009. He gave the hotel an intensely opulent feel using velvets and leather and had the intuition to move the glass-walled gym to a new location among the palm trees in the gardens. With the arrival of the Jouin Manku studio, a more contemporary phase began, and in 2020, the hotel reopened – as splendid as ever – after a complete renovation including its magnificent spa and traditional hammam and its restaurants now entrusted to two celebrities of haute cuisine, chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten (who despite his name makes a vitello tonnato to make any Piedmontese weep), and French pastry chef Pierre Hermé, world master of macaroons.

But let’s avoid being a slave to memories, and indulge in this hospitality made up of small details and pitch-perfect atmosphere. At the entrance, two bawabs in white cloaks open the doors, greeting each guest as if he or she were the most important. And supremely important is how one feels in this grand setting of marbles, inlays, gilding and velvet, and in the cosy suites brimming with stuccoes and Zellige tiles, soft sheets and scents of the Orient. It’s a joy to pause on the balcony overlooking the park and hear, from the Koutoubia mosque right in front of our eyes, the muezzin calling the city to evening prayer, while the sky and the palace walls turn an increasingly intense shade of pink before melting into the darkness illuminated by thousands of lit lanterns. It is a magical, unrepeatable moment.

Tomorrow will be another day – different but no less beautiful.