Founded in 1325 in the heart of the medina, this school is a marvel of elegant mosaic tiles, magnificent cut plaster as fine as lace and beautiful original carved cedar. A renovation in 2019 opened the upstairs rooms as well, so you can get a taste of student life – strikingly austere, though each room does have its own letterbox. The institution functioned as a kind of prep school; typically students here advanced to the adjacent Kairaouine University.
Getty Images/AWL Images RM
Medersa El Attarine
Medina
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
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Nearby Medina attractions
1. Kairaouine Mosque & University
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2. Chemmaine-Sbitriyine Funduq
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Although it is in a mosque that's closed to non-Muslims, the tomb of Fez's founder (d. 828) is considered the spiritual heart of the city and is its most…
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It may not be as lavishly ornamented as the Bou Inania or the Attarine, but this 1670 Quranic school has the great benefits of being very large and little…
5. Zawiya of Sidi Ahmed Tijani
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One of the medina's oldest marketplaces and also one of its most pleasant, this souq is dominated by a graceful plane tree amid stalls selling pottery and…
7. Nejjarine Museum of Wooden Arts & Crafts
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In a wonderfully restored early-18th-century funduq (inn used by caravans), the former rooms for travelling merchants are given over to displays of fine…
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