English
Military Architecture
Immourane [Ben Mirao], North Africa, Marocco
Military Architecture
In 1505, João Lopes de Sequeira, captain of Agadir, after concluding the construction of the castle there, must have built another, alluding to several fortresses in his possession two years later. However, there are few allusions to Immourane and to the Portuguese presence in this area of the coast of Suz. The new neighbouring castle of Bem Mirão or Bem Mirao must have been built in the years following the shipyard of Agadir. Its remains can be found at the height of a rocky promontory that cuts through the beach of Immourane, near Tamrhakht, between Agadir and the Cape of Guer. The Portuguese name is the natural phonetic mutation of Immourane, after the transformation of the noun from the Arab form Ibn into the Portuguese form Ben.
Of the Portuguese structure only the foundations, the lower layers, including the threshold of the land gate remain. The castle benefitted from the layout of the cape to conclude its connection to the coast with a walled barrier. A moat, flooded at high tide, ran along the wall in the defense of the small Portuguese fortress. It is not known if the walled perimeter surrounded the sloped perimeter of the castellated precinct. The disembarkation and the supply of the small fort could be executed in the coves created by the beaches that stretched along both sides of the isthmus. In effect, the irregular edge of the rocky promontory of Immourane was not suitable for sea approaches, except by small barges. Even today the strong surge over these rocks is used for an annual moussem (festival) of fertility.
The Portuguese presence in Immourane was short-lived. In 1513, on the occasion of the purchase of the castle of Agadir by King Manuel I, there is no allusion to another fortress. The small castle inaugurated a strategy of implantation that would be adopted by the Portuguese crown in southern areas of the Maghreb region and which was marked by the construction of satellite castles of support to urban occupations of larger dimension.