La Mamounia (Arabic: مامونية) is a

five-star hotel Hotel ratings are often used to classify hotels according to their quality. From the initial purpose of informing travellers on basic facilities that can be expected, the objectives of hotel rating have expanded into a focus on the hotel experie ...

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, opposite the

Kutubiyya Mosque The Kutubiyya Mosque ( ; Berber: ⵜⵉⵎⵣⴳⵉⴷⴰ ⵏ ⵍⴽⵓⵜⵓⴱⵉⵢⵢⴰ, french: Mosquée Koutoubia) or Koutoubia Mosque is the largest mosque in Marrakesh, Morocco. The mosque's name is also variably rendered as Jami' al-K ...

. It is one of

The Leading Hotels of the World The Leading Hotels of the World, Ltd. (LHW) is a marketing organization, representing more than 400 hotels in over 80 countries. Established in 1928 by European hoteliers, LHW is headquartered in New York City. History The company was establi ...

. For several years, ''

Condé Nast Traveler ''Condé Nast Traveler'' is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards. The Condé Nast unit of Advance Publications purchased ''Signature'', a magazine for Diners Club memb ...

'' has named La Mamounia as the best hotel in the world. "Mamounia" means "safe haven" in the

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

. The hotel has 135 rooms (with each room covering 30 to 45 square meters), 71 suites (with each suite covering 55 to 212 square meters), and 3 riads (with each covering 700 square meters) for rent. Notable guests have included politicians such as

Charles de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

, and

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...

; entertainment industry stars include

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in ''The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Do ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

, and

Omar Sharif Omar Sharif ( ar, عمر الشريف ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub , 10 April 193210 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the ...

, and athletes such as

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. He most recently coached Spanish club Real Madrid and is one of the most ...

History

The hotel was conceived in 1923 by architects

Henri Prost Henri Prost (February 25, 1874 – July 16, 1959) was a French architect and urban planner. He was noted in particularly for his work in Morocco and Turkey, where he created a number of comprehensive city plans for Casablanca, Fes, Marrakesh ...

and Antoine Marchisio on the 15-hectare palace and garden that

Sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...

Mohammed ben Abdallah ''Sidi'' Mohammed ben Abdallah ''al-Khatib'' ( ar, سيدي محمد بن عبد الله الخطيب), known as Mohammed III ( ar, محمد الثالث), born in 1710 in Fes and died on 9 April 1790 in Meknes, was the Sultan of Morocco from 175 ...

gave to his son, Moulay Mamoun in the

18th century The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trad ...

. The hotel opened in 1929 and combines

Moroccan architecture Moroccan architecture refers to the architecture characteristic of Morocco throughout its history and up to modern times. The country's diverse geography and long history, marked by successive waves of settlers through both migration and military ...

with the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. In a 1935 letter to his wife,

wrote about the hotel; "This is a wonderful place, and the hotel is one of the best I have ever used". One of the bars at the hotel is now named after Churchill. La Mamounia was a filming location for

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

's film '' The Man Who Knew Too Much'', starring

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...

and

Doris Day Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, " Sent ...

in 1956. "

Mamunia "Mamunia" is a song written by Paul and Linda McCartney that first appeared on Wings' 1973 album '' Band on the Run''. It was also released as the B-side of the " Jet" single in the US, but was replaced by "Let Me Roll It" when "Mamunia" was bei ...

" was written by Paul McCartney in 1973 whilst staying at the hotel. In September 2009, the hotel reopened after being closed for a 3-year renovation. The renovation was led by designer

Jacques Garcia Jacques Garcia, (born 25 September 1947) is a French architect, interior designer and garden designer, best known for his contemporary interiors of Paris hotels and restaurants. Biography Born in 1947, Jacques Garcia showed a talent for drawing ...

. It added more reds, yellow and black colors to the design as well as

LED display A LED display is a flat panel display that uses an array of light-emitting diodes as pixels for a video display. Their brightness allows them to be used outdoors where they are visible in the sun for store signs and billboards. In recent y ...

s to be used for advertising. The removal of a number of original features during this renovation was criticized. From 2010 to 2015, the hotel offered the La Mamounia literary award, a Moroccan literary prize of 200,000

Moroccan dirham The Moroccan dirham ( ar, درهم, translit=dirham, ary, درهم, translit=derhem; ber, ⴷⵔⵀⵎ, translit=drhm; sign: DH; code: MAD) is the official monetary currency of Morocco. It is issued by the Bank Al-Maghrib, the central bank of ...

s. In 2019, the

government of Morocco The Cabinet of Morocco is the chief executive body of the Kingdom of Morocco. The Cabinet is usually composed of some 25 ministers and 5 to 10 "Secretaries of State" and "Minister Delegates". It is headed by the Prime Minister (officially ''Head o ...

announced that state-owned railway company

ONCF ONCF (from French: ''Office National des Chemins de Fer''; ar, المكتب الوطني للسكك الحديدية ''Al-Maktab al-Waṭaniy lil-Sikak al-Ḥadīdiyyah''; ''Moroccan National Railways Office'') is Morocco's national railway ope ...

would sell a 60% stake it owned in the hotel in a

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

deal in order to cut its debt. In 2020, the mansion, its four restaurants, four bars, and various pavilions were renovated. Chefs

Pierre Hermé Pierre Hermé (; born 20 November 1961) is a French pastry chef and chocolatier. He began his career at the age of 14 as an apprentice to Gaston Lenôtre. Hermé was awarded the title of World's Best Pastry Chef in 2016 by The World's 50 Best Re ...

and

Jean-Georges Vongerichten Jean-Georges Vongerichten (; ; born in Alsace, France, on 16 March 1957) is a French chef.

each redesigned one of the restaurants.

Facilities

The riads are each composed of three bathrooms, salons, private swimming pools and terraces. It has signature restaurants by chefs

and

Jean-Georges Vongerichten Jean-Georges Vongerichten (; ; born in Alsace, France, on 16 March 1957) is a French chef.

. The hotel also includes a 20 acre garden,

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

d courtyards, a spa, and a

health club A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health se ...

in a glass cube.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Buildings and structures in Marrakesh Hotel buildings completed in 1929 Hotels established in 1929 Hotels in Morocco Palaces in Marrakesh The Leading Hotels of the World

History

Facilities

See also

References

External links