The city has an appointment on January 4 of each year with this event that has become a public mass of debate.
Rich in its twelve centuries of existence and its worldwide influence, the spiritual capital of the Kingdom is preparing to celebrate its annual day proclaimed in January 2011 and which coincides with the laying in the year 808 of its first foundations.
Renowned worldwide as the guardian city of its heritage, open to the world and attached to its lifestyle, the city of Fez has an appointment on January 4 of January each year with this day, which over the years has become a mass. public debate, questioning and initiatives.
Listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the city of Idrisside is captivated by the profusion of its monuments, including its 9,000 historic houses, its 11 medersas, its 43 Koranic schools, its 83 mausoleums and its 176 mosques, its Al Quaraouiyine university. , in addition to its 1,200 art craft workshops and large traditional tanneries. The city, a space of art and culture and spirituality par excellence, is indeed a living model of the Mediterranean and Arab-Muslim city. With the splendid Borjs and picturesque walls, Fez is now trying somehow to regain its former glory and meet the challenges to ensure its local development and promote its economic take-off.
The annual Fez Day, instituted since 2011, at the initiative of numerous civil society associations active in the fields of heritage preservation, environmental protection and the dissemination of citizenship values, remains an opportunity to mobilize and examine mechanisms capable of developing a forward-looking vision of the city, supporting its urban expansion and putting it back on the rails of sustainable development.
There is no shortage of initiatives and development projects intended to restore the city to its cultural influence and its former glory. One can quote, among others, the program of restoration of 27 monuments and historical sites of the Medina of Fès, of some 4,000 buildings threatening ruin, as well as tanneries, bridges and madrasahs built by the dynasty of Mérinides between the 13th and 14th centuries, launched with investments of more than 615 million DH. This operation aims to instill a new socio-economic and cultural dynamic in a context steeped in history and heritage, according to the Agency for the Development and Rehabilitation of the City of Fez (ADER-Fez). The objective is also to ensure the sustainability of the monuments, while making these sites tools for the creation of jobs and wealth, the revenues of which will be reinjected into the operations of conservation of the cultural heritage of the medina.
Another initiative concerns the revitalization of the city and the promotion of its heritage, through the opening of the famous foundouks Chemmaïne-Sbitriyine, Barka and Staouniyine, located in the heart of the medina of Fez, to ongoing craft activities. disappearance and cultural and tourist services. These architectural wonders, which date from the 13th and 14th centuries, have been able to find a second life, and with them an entire part of the heritage of the medina of Fez.
It is also important to highlight, in this context, the complementary program for the enhancement of the old medina of Fez which mobilizes a budget of DH 583 million. It aims to make the city attractive to the population, especially the middle class, but also to visitors.
The projects included in the framework of the complementary program concern six major axes, including the rehabilitation of 11 historic monuments and emblematic places, the restoration of places of worship, crafts and traditional trade activities and other 37 sites, including 30 fountains, in addition to the rehabilitation of the historic site of Dar Al Makina.
The commemoration of the annual day of Fez thus remains an opportunity for debates and exchanges on the state of play of the spiritual capital and its future vision with a view to the development of a strategy for relaunching development plans and the city and consolidating its economic competitiveness.
