The Petit Socco (), also known as the Place Souk Dakhel, or in Spanish as Zoco Chico, is a small square in the

medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

quarter of

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Name

The words are a combination of the French word ''petit'', meaning 'little/small', and the Spanish word ''zoco'' (often spelled as ''socco'' in northern Morocco), meaning souk or marketplace.

History

The Petit Socco, intersected by rue Es-Siaghine and close to the Grand Mosque, has long been the focal point of the medina or old city of Tangier. Before the inception of the Tangier International Zone in 1923, many of the European nations' consulates in Tangier were in its immediate vicinity, as were the main banks. The head office of the State Bank of Morocco was established next to the Petit Socco at its creation in 1907, and stayed there until 1952 when it moved to a new building outside the medina. The Petit Socco was the hub of information in diplomatic-era Tanger, with the post offices (also offering

telegraphy Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

services) of the four most intrusive nations on each of its sides by the early 20th century: British to the north (between the ''Café Central'' and the then ''Bristol''hotel), Spanish to the east, German to the south, and French to the west. The Spanish post office was replaced in 1926 by a new

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

building designed by architect José Blein Zarazaga. Two of that era's iconic establishments, the ''Hotel Fuentes'' on its southern side and ''Gran Café Central'' on its northern side, still exist as of 2025. From the 1950s, the Petit Socco declined in prominence and was later known for drugs and prostitution. In recent years, the Petit Socco and surrounding area have undergone significant renovation, as illustrated by the opening in 2017 the ''Palais Zahia'' hotel in the former seat of the State Bank, and the inauguration in 2022 of the Dar Niaba Museum on rue Es-Siaghine. File:HOTEL FUENTES (r).JPG, Hotel Fuentes in 1925 File:Morocco Tangier PetitSocco.jpg, Hotel Fuentes in 2022 File:Petit Socco-2.jpg, Street name signs

References

Buildings and structures in Tangier Tourist attractions in Tangier {{TangerTetouanAlHoceima-geo-stub

Name

History

See also

References