Found­ed in the 9th cen­tu­ry, Fez reached its height in the 13th-14th cen­turies under the Marinids, when it replaced Mar­rakesh as the cap­i­tal of the king­dom. The urban fab­ric and the prin­ci­pal mon­u­ments in the med­i­na — madrasas, fon­douks, palaces, res­i­dences, mosques and foun­tains — date from this peri­od. Although the polit­i­cal cap­i­tal of Moroc­co was trans­ferred to Rabat in 1912, Fez has retained its sta­tus as the country‘s cul­tur­al and spir­i­tu­al cen­tre.