Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
$
The suites
Among its several grand suites,
the most famous is the one named
after Winston Churchill
(below)
. The
decoration is intended to evoke the
era when the politician visited and
contains artifacts including his pipe.
%
Majorelle Ceiling
Winston Churchill met fellow painter
Jacques Majorelle
(see pp26-7)
in 1946
during one of his stays at the Mamounia.
The portly politician persuaded the hotel's
management to commission a mural by
Majorelle
(above)
, which you can now see
on the ceiling of the extended lobby.
^
Winston
Churchill
“This is a wonderful
place, and the hotel
one of the best I have
ever used,” were
Churchill's views on the
hotel and the city that he
adored, in a letter to his
wife, Clementine.
&
Churchill's
paintings
Churchill would paint in
the afternoon and was
fond of Marrakech's
extraordinary light. A
couple of his paintings
still hang in the hotel.
(
The Man Who Knew
*
The architects
Too Much
Several scenes of this 1956
Alfred Hitchcock thriller
(below)
, with James
Stewart and Doris Day,
were shot in the hotel.
The original architects
of the Mamounia, Henri
Prost and Antoine
Marchisio, blended art
deco with traditional
Moroccan motifs
(left)
. In
1986, renovations were
carried out by the
company that designed
Morocco's royal palaces.
)
The birds
The story may be apocryphal, but film director
Alfred Hitchcock was supposedly inspired to make
his movie
The Birds
after being dive-bombed by
finches on his balcony at the Mamounia.
29
If you'd like to stay at the hotel,
see p116
.
