Bardo Museum in Tunis, Palace, Parliament and Poet, Tunis, Tunisia (B)

It is many years since I last visited the Bardo Museum on the outskirts of Tunis capital of Tunisia. I was thrilled to be back. Since my last visit the building that houses the museum, a fifteenth century Beylic palace has undergone extensive renovation. During this renovation one of its most prized works, the Triumph of Neptune, a large second century mosaic, formerly on the floor was put on the wall of the new entrance hall. It is the largest vertical mosaic in the world and part of the largest collection of Roman mosaics housed in this museum.

Three years after this renovation, in 2015, a tragic shooting took place in the museum as a result of which twenty-two people lost their lives . Since then the number of visitors has fallen dramatically. It seems the aim of the perpetrators to damage the economy of the country has been successful. This event is recorded by a memorial tablet on the wall of reception. We should not forget but nor should we allow incidents like this to deter us from visiting this extraordinary museum. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).