Casablanca Cathedral

Casablanca Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

This is a former church rather than a working one, and visits are correspondingly informal. The building was deconsecrated after Moroccan independence in 1956 and has since served as a school, a cultural venue and an exhibition hall, with long periods of neglect between. Entry is generally free when the doors are open, a caretaker will often show you up the tower for a tip, and there is no ticket office or timetable to rely on.

That makes it a poor choice as the sole object of a trip and a good one as part of a guided walk through the French-era centre, which is what most architecture tours of Casablanca do. Those walks link the cathedral with the courthouse, the old prefecture, the central market and the apartment blocks along the boulevards, all built in the same three decades. Anyone whose interest is religious rather than architectural should note that the great mosque on the seafront is the city's essential building and is visited on a proper guided ticket.

Visiting Casablanca Cathedral: what to see

Paul Tournon designed the Church of the Sacred Heart in 1930, and it is the most inventive thing the French built in Morocco. The material is reinforced concrete, left white, and the vocabulary is art deco filtered through Gothic: two square towers, a vertical rhythm of thin buttresses, and stepped gables that look at a distance like something from a 1920s film set. Inside, the nave is high and stripped, the concrete ribs exposed, and the walls carry large areas of coloured glass in abstract geometric patterns.

Local motifs appear in the detailing, a deliberate attempt to make a European church that acknowledged where it stood. Because the furnishings are long gone, the space reads as pure structure, which is why photographers like it. Condition is the problem: glass is broken in places, damp shows on the concrete, and restoration has been announced more than once. The climb up the north tower, where it is allowed, gives a view over the park and the boulevards.

Casablanca Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Opening is unpredictable. Mornings are the better bet, and during exhibitions the building keeps regular hours and is properly lit, which is the ideal way to see it; the French cultural institute and local arts organisations announce those events. Outside such periods, you may find the gates locked and nothing to do but look at the front from the street, which is still worth the detour.

The park of the Arab League beside it was replanted and reopened after a long closure and gives the best angle on the towers. Casablanca is mild all year, hot and humid in August, and the centre is walkable in the morning before the traffic thickens. Friday midday is quiet across the city. Combine the cathedral with the Habous quarter, built in the 1920s in a deliberately traditional style, and with the great mosque, whose guided visits run at fixed times and should be booked around rather than squeezed in.