Bastion de l'Ange
The best-preserved of the four bastions of the El Jadida fortification — a circular artillery platform projecting from the sea wall, with cannon emplacements still intact. The view from the top takes in the entire Atlantic horizon. The Portuguese built it to defend against Ottoman naval attack. The Ottomans never came this far west.
The Bastion de l'Ange — the Angel's Bastion — is the most prominent of the four corner bastions of El Jadida's Portuguese fortification. Built in the 16th century, it juts out over the harbour with walls thick enough to absorb cannon fire and embrasures wide enough to return it.
The bastion platform gives the best elevated view of the harbour and the surrounding coastline. Below, the sea crashes against the base of the walls. The Portuguese built El Jadida (then Mazagan) as a fortified trading post, and the bastions were designed to defend against both seaborne attack and landward siege. The Moroccans took the city in 1769 after the Portuguese blew up part of the fortifications during their retreat.
The walls have been partially restored. Walking the rampart circuit takes about twenty minutes and connects all four bastions. The stonework — massive blocks of yellow sandstone, salt-eroded and pocked with cannon marks — is the most physically impressive Portuguese architecture remaining in Morocco.
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