Dar el-Bacha, the "pasha's house", is a residence built in 1910 for Thami El Glaoui, pasha of Marrakech from 1912 and the most powerful political figure in southern Morocco under the French protectorate. Restored by the National Museums Foundation (Fondation nationale des musées), the palace was inaugurated in 2017 as the Museum of Confluences (Musée des Confluences): its temporary exhibitions show the many influences, Arab-Muslim, Amazigh, Jewish, Andalusian and African, that meet in Moroccan culture. The building draws visitors as much as the collections: a courtyard planted with orange trees, fountains, zellige tilework, carved stucco and painted cedar ceilings, with borrowings from European, notably Italian, decoration that were rare in Marrakech at the time. After the September 2023 earthquake, the museum closed for consolidation work before reopening. It also houses Bacha Coffee, a coffee house set in one of the original rooms.
Highlights
The courtyard and its garden
The heart of the palace is a vast tiled courtyard, divided by zellige paths and planted with orange trees, banana plants and palms around fountains. You first see it from the surrounding colonnades, whose columns are clad in zellige.
The ceilings and decoration
Coffered ceilings in painted cedar, muqarnas domes, carved doors and chiselled stucco show the skill of the craftsmen gathered by the pasha. Take the time to look up in each reception room: the ceilings change from one room to the next.
The National Museums Foundation exhibitions
The rooms host temporary exhibitions drawn largely from the national collections: ceramics, textiles, jewellery, manuscripts, wooden and everyday objects. The programme changes several times a year.
Bacha Coffee
Set in a period reception room of the palace, the café serves a long list of arabica coffees and pastries. It takes no reservations: the queue forms from opening time and often exceeds an hour. A museum ticket is required to get in.
Infos pratiques
Tips
Admission costs 60 MAD for foreign visitors, 25 MAD for Moroccan citizens and 15 MAD for Moroccans under 18 (prices checked in October 2026). The museum alone takes 45 minutes to an hour. If you are set on Bacha Coffee, arrive a little before 10am and join the café queue as soon as you are inside: the wait grows quickly towards midday.
How to get there
65-69, Riad Laârous, route Dar el-Bacha, Marrakech medina (the area between Mouassine and Bab Doukkala). On foot: about 15 to 20 minutes from Jemaa el-Fna square, via rue Mouassine then rue Dar el-Bacha. By taxi: route Dar el-Bacha can be reached by car from Bab Doukkala.
Opening hours
Nearby
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