Place du 14 Janvier (14th January Square), Tunis

The 14th January Square occupies a pivotal position in modern Tunis, where political history, public life, and urban space converge. Renamed to mark the Tunisian Revolution that erupted on January 14, 2011, the square commemorates the moment that triggered political change in Tunisia and ignited the wider Arab Spring. The square functions primarily as a crossroads.

Anchoring this section of Avenue Habib Bourguiba, the square sits directly on the boulevard’s wide central promenade, a tree-lined pedestrian spine that extends east and west, structuring traffic, movement, and public space. On the eastern end of Avenue Habib Bourguiba, the square is framed by government buildings, hotels, and administrative landmarks linked to the city’s late 19th- and early 20th-century expansion. Among them are the Ministry of Tourism and Handicrafts, reflecting Tunis’s role as a national gateway for culture and travel.

Once called Africa Square, it originally featured a statue of French statesman Jules Ferry, later replaced in 1956 by an equestrian statue of country's first President Habib Bourguiba following independence. After Bourguiba’s removal from power in 1987, the statue disappeared, and a clock tower, with a reflecting pool and dancing fountain, took its place, standing right in the center of the square. In 2016, Bourguiba’s statue returned to the western edge of the square.