The Musée de Marrakech exhibits a collection of Moroccan art forms within the decadent salons of the Mnebhi Palace. The central internal courtyard, with its riot of cedar archways, stained-glass windows, intricate painted door panels and, of course, lashings of zellige (colourful geometric mosaic tilework), and exquisite Fez ceramics in the main room off the courtyard, and the palace's hammam. This is one of Marrakesh's oldest museums and looks dated compared with some others.
The palace was once home to Mehdi Mnebhi, defence minister during Sultan Moulay Abdelaziz’s troubled reign (1894–1908). While Mnebhi was away receiving a medal from Queen Victoria, England conspired with France and Spain to colonise North Africa, and autocrat Pasha Glaoui filched his palace. After independence, the building was seized by the state and became Marrakesh’s first girls’ school in 1965. It was only after a painstaking restoration by the Omar Benjelloun Foundation in 1997 that the palace swung open the doors to the masses as this museum.
