Fes el-Jdid was founded as a fortified administrative city in 1276 by the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Ya'qub.

Between the inner and outer southern walls of the city was a district originally known as Hims which housed the sultan's regiments of Syrian archers.

[2][1] Most likely during the Saadian period, a bastion known as Borj al-Mahres was constructed just south of Bab al-Amer, to serve as a defensive fortification at the southwest corner of the city.

[2] The bastion was later demolished, along with some the surrounding ramparts, on the orders of the governor Hamdoun er-Rusi, appointed by Sultan Moulay Abdallah during his first reign (1729–1734), during a period of unrest and repression.

As the French administration judged the gate too narrow and inconvenient for traffic, they demolished the nearby aqueduct and much of the surrounding wall in order to build the main road that now passes next to it.