"Wiston Churchill slept here
The world is dotted with hotels that pride themselves on having hosted it. The " Winston Churchill slept here ” is the gold standard to know if a hotel is important or not.
The British prime minister was a joy and a bon vivant: he was not served by anyone. He slept in many great hotels (in which ones did he not?) But one stands out from all of them: The Mamounia , in Marrakesh . Even those who only know this Moroccan hotel and the figure of Churchill with brushstrokes know the story. It has been told and repeated ad nauseam because it has what stories should have: hero and adventure.
Churchill's unfinished painting
Churchill was a great traveler who detested the English climate. He started traveling to Marrakesh in the 1930s, a little annoyed that the government of his country did not give him the position in the Cabinet that he expected. So he decided to take a gap year and go to a warm place to paint.
On his first visits, he alternated stays at ** La Mamounia **, which was built in the 1920s, with others at Villa Taylor , the house of a New York couple in the French zone, near where the Jardin Majorelle now stands.
At this time he had the first contact with a city of which he wrote: “ Marrakech is simply the nicest place on Earth to spend an afternoon. ”. This quote is part of this story (and of History) and is used whenever the occasion arises. just emerged.
Churchill Suite dressing room
in 1935 Churchill had already fallen under the spell of La Mamounia . On December 30 (it is intuited that with no plans to spend New Year's Eve cold in England) the politician wrote his wife, Clementine Hozier, Clemmie, a letter. In it he told her: “this is a wonderful place and this hotel is one of the best I have ever seen. I've got a fine room with a bath and a twelve-foot-deep balcony. , looking out there is a spectacular panorama over the tops of the orange and olive trees and over the houses and the walls…”.
He never stopped staying there, even during the war he found time to do so. He always traveled with his brushes , but those years he only had time to finish one painting. He was busy trying to stop Hitler. Starting in the 1940s, La Mamounia was his home in Marrakech where he used to go like a rock star. He was traveling alone or with Clemmie, service, luggage and with the intention of spending time there.
The Mamounia was the grand hotel from Marrakesh, from Morocco. Apart from the villas of his cosmopolitan friends, there was no place there to match the politician, writer and painter. The hotel had opened in 1923, with the world altered after World War I and in the midst of Art Deco. Its architecture had been commissioned to Prost and Marchisio , two of the flag bearers of the Frenchified rationalist aesthetic that they wanted to implant in the city (at that time it was under the French Protectorate, which lasted until 1956).
Those who came to her did so looking for that crossroads between Africa and Europe. Or better, between the idealized image they had of Africa and the one they brought from Europe. Churchill too. Marrakech had enough exoticism to stimulate and enough international atmosphere to reassure. It was a perfect place . And La Mamounia wonderfully concentrated that spirit that floated in the city. It was always French, Moroccan and cosmopolitan. What remains.
Dining room of the Churchill Suite at La Mamounia
When La Mamounia reopened in 2010 (after a comprehensive, multi-million dollar refurbishment and with the interior design of Jacques Garcia ) it was decided dedicate a suite to Churchill . His most famous visitor deserved it, although he competed with figures like Hitchcock, Chaplin, the Rolling Stones , crowned heads or Hollywood stars. The others slept in the hotel, but Churchill stayed in it, talked about it and took his friends to meet him. There he invited, after the Casablanca Conference of 1943, a certain Roosevelt , who he said was "the most beautiful place in the world" . We all agree that this English titan had merits to have his own Suite. And with his own bar, The Churchill , something that makes sense for a lover (euphemism not to write addicted) of whiskey.
Ode to the bathtub of the Churchill Suite
The Churchill Suite is full of charisma . It's British, masculine, and has the Art Deco feel of the rest of the hotel, but infused with the personality of the politician. It is not for all audiences, nor is it necessary. She is not conventionally pretty: she is above those labels. It is not reached by chance, although anyone can reserve it; This is for those who know the figure of the statesman and want to wink at history.
It is one of the so-called "Exceptional Suites" of La Mamounia. The suite, which is reached by going down some stairs, has two levels, two bedrooms, a large living room, a study and two bathrooms. The famous balcony from which you can see the olive and orange trees exists; You can still see olive trees, orange trees and the rest of the species in the La Mamounia garden. Churchill painted it several times and those paintings are in England. The garden of La Mamounia alone justifies a trip.
The view of the garden of La Mamounia
But let's go back to the Suite, because here what is inside the room matters a lot. At the entrance we are greeted by a politician bronze statue and a portrait with his cigar that set the tone for the entire interior: everything here is Churchill. Above all, Here we imagine it. When we see the marble 'freestanding' bathtub we think of him inside her, with his pure and reading reports of him. When we sit down at the desk we feel like signing some treaty or writing some best seller like he did, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The world ball of the office invites you to close your eyes, turn it around and place your finger anywhere. The checkered patterns on the armchairs take us back to the English countryside. On the headboard of the bed is his name in Arabic . And on the walls, this is a main course, there is his original canvases.
Original Churchill Canvases
Sitting on the balcony takes you back to the time when peace was negotiated on balconies. The lucky ones who have slept here sum it up like this: “being in this room makes you feel important” . The effect it achieves is not that of making one feel at home (because it is an extravagant and strange place) but rather that of a usurper in the house of Winston Churchill.
We have all felt the weight of history when we have been, for example, in Berlin. He also sits here. We travel to achieve that kind of sensations. We travel to make inner journeys.