Larache

In 1471 Portuguese from Asilah and Tangier sailed up the Loukkos and began a fortress at a toll post near the town, but the tribesmen and a Wattasid army under Moulay Nasser drove them off before it was finished. Moulay Nasser then walled the town and built the fort of al-Fath to close the river mouth, and a century later the Saadi sultan Ahmad al-Mansur added a castle on the landward side, al-Nasr, 'the Victory'. Behind these defences Larache grew into a haven for Dutch, English, and Moroccan corsairs who preyed on Spanish and Portuguese shipping. In 1610 the town passed to the Spanish crown, whose garrison renamed al-Mansur's castle Our Lady of Europe, yet Spain used Larache mainly as a trading stop and never truly governed it. Moulay Ismail won it back in 1689, and for the rest of the period it stayed in Moroccan hands.