The Medina of Marrakech: A Living Museum of Craft

The Fez medina is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the world. But beyond its historical significance, it is a living craft city — a place where the workshops of the 21st century use methods from the 11th century.

A City Organised Around Craft

The Fez medina is not a museum — it is a functioning city where craft production is the primary economic activity. The city's layout reflects its craft history: separate quarters for leather workers, weavers, metalworkers, potters, and carpenters. Each quarter clusters workshops around a central area where raw materials arrive and finished goods leave. This organisation has been continuous for over a thousand years.

The Leather Quarter

The most famous craft of Fez is leather. The Chouara tannery, operating since the 11th century, is the production heart of the city. Raw hides arrive from surrounding farms, are processed through a series of pits using traditional methods, and emerge as the rich, warm Moroccan leather that has supplied craftspeople across the region for centuries. The same leather ends up in workshops that produce poufs, bags, shoes, and belts — much of it sold in the souk shops that ring the tannery.

Why Traditional Methods Persist

The methods persist partly because of tradition and partly because they produce results that modern industrial processes cannot replicate. Vegetable-tanned leather from Fez ages in ways that chrome-tanned leather does not. The natural dyes produce colours with a depth and complexity that synthetic alternatives lack. The market specifically wants the product of these traditional methods.

The People Who Make It

Tanning is physically demanding work. The artisans who work the pits stand in the dye baths for hours, working the hides by foot. This knowledge and labour is what makes authentic Moroccan leather objects worth what they cost.

From Fez and Marrakech to your home: Our collection — authentic craft, ships from Italy.