Bayt Dakira (House of Memory)

Opened 2020. In the heart of the mellah where Jewish and Muslim Essaouirans lived side by side for three centuries.

Bayt Dakira is not a museum exactly. It is a space for inter-religious dialogue — one of several created across Morocco in recent years, alongside the future Museum of Jewish Culture in Fes. Inside: artefacts, photographs, and documentation of the community that once made up forty percent of Essaouira's population.

The sultan appointed Jewish families to run international trade from this port in the 18th century. The Stars of David are still carved above doorways in the mellah. Nobody removed them.