Tetouan

When the French instigated the "Protectorate" they ceded the northern coastal strip of the country to Spain. Tangier the largest city was an international zone and Ceuta and Melilla the two coastal ports occupied by Spain from the 15C and 16C respectively were marginal so Spain ran their protectorate from Tetouan. Consequently it has some attractive, if Fascist,  colonial architecture.

 Spain nearly lost their territory due to spirited resistance from the Rif and it was only in 1925 with help from French forces that they were finally able to subjugate the region. It must therefore have seemed an attractive proposition to spanish moroccan troops to rebel against the spanish government. That is how Francisco Franco came to announce his rebellion against the elected Spanish Republican Government in Tetouan  and to invade

southern bringing about the Spanish Civil War.

We arrived in Tetouan on a day that was not only market day but when the King was in town. Between an unknown one-way system in the medina, stalls spilling into all the streets and road closures and security barriers in case his Maj should wish to leave the Palace, parking was a complete nightmare. Hurrah for faux-guides I say. 

But the town was looking good for the King.