Tétouan
Tétouan
orTetuán
(both: tātwän`), city (1994 pop. 277,516), N Morocco. The city has some light industry and is an export point for livestock and agricultural products. Its old casbah and mosques are tourist attractions. Tétouan was founded in the 14th cent. on the site of an earlier town at the foot of a high hill a short distance from the Mediterranean Sea. Castilians destroyed it c.1400 because it was a base for pirates. Muslim refugees from Spain refounded (1492) the city, and its flourishing handicrafts owe much to them. Tétouan was captured by the Spanish in 1860 and was reoccupied by them in 1913. It was the capital of the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco from 1912 to 1956.Tétouan
(also Tetuán), a city in northwestern Morocco; situated on the Río Martín, 10 km from the Mediterranean Sea. Administrative center of Tétouan Province. Population, 139,100 (1971).
Tétouan is a commercial and industrial center of northern Morocco. Its outer harbor is the city of Martil. Tétouan has enterprises of the food, wood-products, chemical, metalworking, textile, and cement industries. There is handicraft production of leather and metal items, ornaments, and carpets.
From 1912 to 1956, Tétouan was the main administrative center of the former Spanish zone in northern Morocco. Founded in the ninth century, the city contains numerous monuments of 17th-century architecture, including the casbah, walls and towers of the medina, the palace (restored 1948), and the Great Mosque. Tétouan is a center of artisan production, including weaving, jewelry making, and leatherworking. The city has an archaeological museum (founded 1940) and a museum of Moroccan art (founded 1921). The ruins of the Roman city of Tamuda are located nearby.