EnglishCustoms House
Safi [Safim, Çafi], North Africa, Marocco
Equipment and Infrastructures
It is very likely that a more systematic survey of the city would reveal other and more varied structures of Portuguese origin besides defensive works, religious structures and gateways. At present for example we know nothing about the traces of the city’s docks and customs house of the city although we know that the latter was supposedly surrounded by a wall 60 centimetres thick in 1506 and that master João Luís worked on it; as for the dock, it was still under construction in 1516 and it was already in risk of ruin. Jorge Correia, in a recent article based on a document from the Corpo Cronológico, attempted an interesting reconstitution of some of the areas of Safi, particularly aimed at understanding the articulation of the spaces built by the Portuguese, including the custom house and the casa dos contos (financial office).