Last updated on May 20th, 2026
The Danish Consulate in Essaouira was built in 1765 when Mogador became a new, fortified city and Morocco’s busiest trading port. Today the decaying landmark awaits renovation and a new use.
Mogador’s Danish Consulate
The port of Essaouira (Mogador) was founded in 1765 specifically to connect Europe and the rest of the world to Africa. To consolidate international trade in his new port, Sultan Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah pretty much required that all consular offices relocate to this new city. The Danish Consulate was the first to make the move.
The Kasbah in the Sultan’s new port city was to be the city’s administrative area. And this is where he offered the Danish consul and merchant company property.
Supposedly, the new consulate was designed by a young Danish architect named Vilhelm Schrøder. However, the only Danish architect of that name I can find a record of wasn’t born until 1810! So, either there was another Danish architect with that name or it’s just a legend. It seems unlikely that a Danish architect designed the building, as the interior appears to have a very traditional Moroccan design, with a multi-story balcony-lined open central courtyard. However, this is the name attached to the building’s design in every source I’ve found, so I’m watching for more info.
Whoever designed it, Mogador’s Danish Consulate must have been lovely.
However, the building exterior was terribly dilapidated when I visited in 2013.
The former Danish Consulate in Essaouira (Mogador) sits at the end of a narrow street in the old Kasbah.
(Not surprisingly, the interior was not open, so I’ve only seen photographs of the it.)
And it seems the Danes didn’t use their fine new building very long.
It’s likely the Danish consulate in Morocco existed largely to support the work of the Danish African Company. Established in 1755, this trading company was created to make the most of a Danish trade treaty with Morocco. However, the company was shut down in 1768 – just a few years after moving to Mogador/Essaouira.
It’s not clear who moved into the building after the Danes left.
Danish and French speakers can learn more about the building in Et dansk konsulat i Marokko : un consulat danois au Maroc (A Danish Consulate in Morocco), written by Danish architects Margrét Matthíasdóttir and Bente Lange, with parallel text in Danish and French and, apparently, not available in the USA.
Is new life for finally coming for the consulate?
Various studies and schemes have been proposed over the past 20 years or so to restore this building. None of which seem to have led to any sort of actual work on the building.
The most recent proposal surfaced in 2019, led by Matthíasdóttir and Lange. Of course, we all know what happened early in 2020. It’s unclear to me whether this latest proposal to rescue the building and give it a new use is going to go forward at some point or not.
Other consulates in Essaouira
Mogador is said to have had eight consulates. All but one, that of Brazil (which would have still been a Portuguese colony), represented European governments and their trading companies. Along with Denmark, these consuls belonged to Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.
All were located in or very near the Kasbah. Today several of the buildings are in use, while others appear to be in much the same condition as the historic Danish Consulate.
