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A house among the nightingales
Ion Perdicaris, a Greek-American man of letters born in Athens in 1840, built the house in 1878 on a wooded hill overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar, about 6 km from the centre of Tangier. The estate was known as Aidonia, the Place of the Nightingales. Its architecture combines the English Queen Anne style with classical and medieval elements, including crenellated towers.
The kidnapping of 1904
On the evening of 18 May 1904, men led by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni seized Perdicaris and his stepson, Cromwell Varley, at the house. President Theodore Roosevelt sent warships to Tangier, and in June his Secretary of State, John Hay, sent the message “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead”. Both men were freed later that month, once the Sultan’s government had accepted Raisuni’s terms, including a ransom of $70,000.
From ruin to heritage centre
In 1930 the estate was sold to Thami El Glaoui, and after Morocco’s independence in 1956 it became state property. Decades of neglect followed. Renovation began in 2015, and in April 2022 the palace reopened as a Heritage Interpretation Centre presenting Ion Perdicaris and the biodiversity of the Rmilat forest.
