This is a XIXth century palace
located in the heart of the medina and turned
into a museum of popular arts and traditions.
The palace is composed of a main residence, secondary
apartments and outbuildings, all forming a proper
little town closed on itself around a small square
that communicates with the rest of the neighbourhood
through a large gate.
The main part of the palace was designed in the
traditional style of North-African stately homes,
with a monumental entrance giving into staggered
hallways, leading in turn into a vast paved courtyard
with a marble basin and bordered on its four sides
by “apartments” that used each to
accommodate a family. The T shaped layout of the
“apartments” is also classical, and
the decoration is an usual combination of Andalusian
and Italianate styles.

The display concerns the rooms on the ground
floor of the main palace building. For the most
part the objects are those used in the life of
the XIXth century population of Tunis. Various
scenes of daily life, or some ceremonial moments,
are reconstructed in the different rooms to show
the attitudes or the products of traditional crafts.
The outbuildings house occasional exhibitions
or collections of craft objects. |