User:إيان/United Nations Square (Casablanca)

United Nations Square (ساحة الأمم المتحدة, Place des Nations-Unies) is a public square in the center of Casablanca, Morocco. It's a square with significance in the history of Casablanca.

History
The area outside the walls of the old medina that is now United Nations Square, used to be the location of the Souq Kbir (سوق كبير) before French colonization. In 1908, after the French bombardment and invasion of Casablanca, the French commander Charles Martial Joseph Dessigny ordered the construction of a clock tower in the area, which took the name, Place de l'Horloge "Square of the Clock". The square was then named Place de France "Square of France" and developed by a team of French architects urban planners chosen by the French Resident General Hubert Lyautey. Most notable among these was Henri Prost.

The iconic Hotel Excelsior, which remains today, was built in 1916.

As the European ville nouvelle, or "new city," expended eastward of the square, the square evolved from a marketplace to a contact point between the European city and the Casablanca medina, which French colonists described as the "ville indigène." The square was a bus station for a period of time in the midcentury.

Jean-François Zevaco designed the Kora Ardia (كرة أرضية) in 1975.

The Casablanca Tramway transformed the square. Work started in 2009, and the first line was inaugurated December 12, 2012.

Access
The square is reachable by Line 1 of the Tramway, which stops at United Nations Square Station.