At the Royal Mansour Casablanca, a Historic Crossroads of the World Gets a New Lease of Life

Located in one of the city’s prime addresses—an Art Deco skyscraper and former hotel on the cusp of the Old Medina, first constructed in the 1950s and reemerging after an eight-year-long revamp—the hotel has already landed in the city with a bang. When I visited back in June, the bright, high-ceilinged lobby was bustling with both well-to-do locals (many of whom could barely hide their curiosity while checking out the flashiest new joint in town, pointing up to the 600 fish carved from Bohemian crystal that serve as a rippling light fixture) and the expected international business crowd—but also, somewhat reassuringly, a handful of families and couples clearly visiting Casablanca for pleasure.

Photo: Cyrille Robin / Courtesy of Royal Mansour Casablanca

That the hotel is already attracting tourist tourists can probably be chalked up to its impressive provenance. The second property from the team behind the Royal Mansour Marrakech—which, since opening in 2010, has dazzled visitors the world over with its no-expenses-spared spirit of palatial luxury—the new hotel is very literally fit for a king. (It’s owned by King Mohammed VI.) At first, the sheer splendor of it can feel a little overwhelming, but once the eye adjusts to all that shimmer and all that marble—sourced from all four corners of Africa, and even further beyond—the subtleties of the hotel’s opulent design scheme shine through. Just take the moody lobby-level bar which pays homage to the former Bar Diplomate, once part of the historic hotel that previously sat on this site, through the 1950s stylings of its geometrically-patterned marbled floors and the mosaic mural of the hotel’s original facade. (My personal favorite retro detail? The meticulously recreated Art Deco elevator dials.)