Bardo Museum in Tunis, Palace, Parliament and Poet, Tunis, Tunisia

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.

The exterior of this palace is very plain, a simple white block that does not reflect the wealth or social status of the occupants. This is typical of traditional North African architecture. However, the door of a traditional building is another matter. A Tunisian door is not just a means of separating private spaces from the outdoors. A traditional door is large and made of solid wood. It sometimes contains a smaller door creating a chicane effect, a defence mechanism, and more convenient for every day users. Generally, these doors were installed in a stone wall and were assembled using nails, large nails. The patterns made on the doors were a means of concealing these nails. The most common patterns found in the medinas (old town centres) are the eye, the firs tree and the star shape. The most common colours are blue or yellow although other colours are used. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).