“Dar Al-Dabbagh” in Fez… New life flows in the oldest tannery for authentic leather
The “Dar Dabbagh Chaouara” in Fez, the oldest vegetable leather tannery in the world, has undergone a major restoration process that will restore the luster of this historical monument after centuries and years had taken it and turned it into ruins.
The restoration process has given Dar Dabbagh Chaouara a new life, which will give a strong boost, not only to the leather industry in Fez, https://gomarrakechdeserttrips.com/tours/marrakech-to-fes-3-days-luxury-desert-trip/ but also to the city’s tourism sector, for which this monument, located in the Blida district opposite the Sidi Hamoumi corner and Derb El Mitre, is a locomotive and one of its facades, and which is visited by more than 90 percent of tourists coming to the spiritual capital of the Kingdom.
The Dar Dabbagh Chaouara extends over an area of approximately 7,200 square meters, including 4,000 covered square meters, and includes 193 workshops used by more than 600 traditional craftsmen, and produces between 3,000 and 5,000 finished leathers daily.
Looking to the Future
The restoration of Dar el-Dabbagh Chaouara is part of the restoration and rehabilitation program for historical monuments in Fez, whose agreement was signed on March 4, 2013. This program aims to restore and rehabilitate 27 historical monuments in the old city of Fez for a total amount exceeding 285 million dirhams, including traditional industry hotels and three traditional tanneries, namely the Sidi Moussa Tannery, the Ain Azliten Tannery, and Dar el-Dabbagh Chaouara, to which tanners recently returned to practice their work after a period of hiatus to make way for the restoration process.
This landmark has been restored according to the old traditional structure and is now operating in a distinctive form, and the craftsmen have joined their professional shops, and the restoration process has enabled the preservation of this historical heritage that dates back several centuries, stressing that the state will work to contribute to the advancement of this sector by distinguishing the leather of Dar Al-Dabbagh Chaouara from manufactured leather; with the “natural leather” mark that was recently enacted; “which will give a quality stamp to these leathers”.
The purpose of distinguishing the leather of Dar Al-Dabbagh Chaouara with the “natural leather” mark, which will be granted to many qualified craftsmen by proving that the leather is free of manufactured materials through laboratory tests, is “to raise the value of the product, given its respect for environmental standards, and the physical effort involved, in addition to being a cultural, civilizational and professional heritage passed down through generations, and this is the main strength of this product that can contribute to raising the selling price and distinguishing the quality of the product of traditional tanneries”.
The leather industry is historically linked to the city of Fez and to the Dar al-Dabbagh Shawara, which was formerly called the Dar al-Dahab (gold); according to Balkhayat, leather tanners were considered to be from the noble class and the elite, such as scholars and ministers. This house, the speaker explains, played a major role in supplying the national market, throughout history, with leather, “and its influence extended even outside Morocco; for example, during World War II, Dar al-Dabbagh Shawara provided Europe with its needs for leather that was used in the manufacture of military clothing, etc.” He stressed that this landmark’s role was not limited to producing leather, but rather played an important role in fighting the colonizer; as it formed the basic foundation for resistance and struggle. Incomplete repairs
If the restoration of the Dar Al-Dabbagh Chaouara saved this historical landmark from the state of deterioration it was suffering from, the repair process did not exceed 90 percent of the work agreed upon with the professionals, and some of the facilities affiliated with the tannery have not yet been completed, such as bathrooms and washing facilities, replacing the leather refining mechanisms, digging wells to use their water in tanning, and using the water of the valley, which is polluted water, which affects the quality of tanning. The association stated that it would undertake the restoration of the machines used in refining the leather instead of the contractor that carried out the restoration work.
The tannery professional explained that although the restoration of “Dar Al-Dabbagh Chouara” contributed to improving working conditions, this did not reflect on the financial situation of the professionals, due to the great stagnation in leather marketing in connection with the global situation, as well as what he called “obstacles to the export of leather products at the level of the customs administration”, which led, according to him, to a decline in the number of exporters, in addition to the competition of imitation leather, which comes from China, for the Moroccan product; “It is a material that is widely marketed and used by manufacturers in Morocco”.
This was also confirmed by Omar Morched, advisor to the regional chamber of traditional industry in Fez-Meknes and vice president of the professional association of tannery teachers Dar Chouara, who said that after the restoration process, Dar Al-Dabbagh Chouara became “in a high-end condition, but the harsh working conditions did not improve the incomes of the professionals, due to the stagnation experienced by the sector”.
Tourist landmark
A tourist who chooses Fez as a destination cannot pass by without its ancient city revealing its hidden secrets dating back hundreds of years, as is the case with Dar al-Dabbagh Shawara, a landmark that makes the tourist stand in awe before this integrated artistic painting, which resembles with its circular basins decorated with all the colors of the spectrum the paint mixture used by the painter to complete his artwork.
When Hespress visited Dar al-Dabbagh Shawara, unlike the workers whose number was limited, following a Caesarean vacation due to the severe cold wave that is currently looming over the city of Fez, one of the bazaars overlooking the space of this landmark was crowded with tourists, each of whom rushed to take pictures of this landmark through which, the visitor travels on the train of time to 10 centuries ago.
The Dar Al-Dabbagh Chaouara employs about a thousand tanners, including “craftsmen” and “masters”, “and it is the only tannery in the world that still relies on vegetable tanning”, and that the Chaouara tannery is a major source for all leather products in the city of Fez; where the hides are brought from the Ain Al-Naqbi leather market to be transformed inside this tannery, before being directed to manufacturing in the various leather workshops in the city of Fez, which hosts about 11 thousand “masters”, in addition to a large number of “craftsmen”, “which makes this sector the most important in the old city of Fez”, according to the regional director of the traditional industry sector, who pointed out that the traditional tanneries of Fez also supply other cities, such as Rabat and the northern cities, with their needs of leather. “Work at the tannery begins early in the morning and ends late in the evening,” and that tanning leather at this site is limited to the use of natural materials in all stages of production, such as salt, lime, and pigeon droppings, in addition to pomegranate peels, saffron, and various natural and plant materials. Working in the tannery basins is tiring and difficult and requires great physical effort; the hides are placed in the lime basins, then cleaned of wool, hair, and impurities, until they are dyed and dried under the sun, before being sold to traditional craftsmen who work on transforming them into various products.