The Mystique of Morocco: Gardens, Homes, Style

Moroccan garden — A centuries-old fig tree in Umberto Pasti’s garden in Morocco (“Eden Revisited”/Photo by Ngoc Minh Ngo)

a throw inspired by the geometric tapestry patterns of Morocco — Annie Selke ‘Anatolia’ throw ($430), annieselke.com

Twenty years ago, Italian writer and horticulturalist Umberto Pasti was lured to the remote village of Rohuna in northern Morocco by a friend who promised a place where no nazrani, no foreigner, had ever set foot before. Pasti was enchanted and set about building a home and expansive garden there, a transformative experience he recounts in Eden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco (Rizzoli, 2019).

When gardeners are writers, the gifts of beauty are twofold: magnificent swaths of earth coupled by words generous enough to capture it. “Around here the winds themselves have identities,” Pasti writes. “The sea wind is a giant with icy breath. Even the trees—every apricot tree has its states of mind, every plum tree its shifts of mood.” With every sun-dappled image of ancient olive trees or field of flowers, Pasti invites readers to share his piece of paradise.

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Front courtyard of Pasti’s house ("Eden Revisited"/Photographer: Ngoc Minh Ngo)

A small white-walled room in Tangier, Morocco, features red and white stripes on the ceiling and on the L-shaped banquet. Rest of the room is decorated sparingly, with a single, richly colored painting, a brass lantern, a green, red and white stripe rug, and a circular coffee table.

The candy-striped ceiling in La Di Dar, decorator Gavin Houghton’s Tangier hideaway ("Inside Tangier"/Photographer: Guido Taroni)

An arched upholstered headboard on a 4-poster bed mirrors the arch of an ornate, dark wood door frame in a Tangier bedroom. Both the headboard and bedspread are bright orange, adding a punch of color to the room’s light walls, dark woodwork, antique rug, and rust-colored tile floor. An ornate, dark wood chest sits at the foot of the bed.

A vivid tangerine bed in Dar Zero, a centuries-old home owned today by Marco Scarani and Jamie Creel of the Manhattan boutique Creel and Gow ("Inside Tangier"/Photographer: Guido Taroni)

The city of Tangier is as complex as the ancient tapestries, tile mosaics, and carved lattices that adorn its homes. Over centuries, it has been Carthaginian, Phoenician, Roman, Vandal, Berber, Arab, Portuguese, English, Spanish, and, finally, Moroccan—each era leaving its ornamental imprint. It’s fitting then, that in his new book, Inside Tangier: Houses & Gardens (Vendome, 2019), interior designer Nicolò Castellini Baldissera tells the city’s story through its décor.

An ocean view framed by an ornate, but simply furnished sitting room with banquets on three walls around a low circular table — Fresco-painted walls in the former home of Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent in Tangier (“Inside Tangier”/Photo by Guido Taroni)

The iconic home of Yves Saint Laurent is here, as well as the ornate Moorish palace owned by Woolworth heiress and legendary hostess Barbara Hutton. Not everyone we meet in Inside Tangier is famous, but what we do find is an artistic community with international sophistication united by love of place.