medina of Tunis
The Medina of Tunis is the medina quarter of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
The Medina contains some 700 monuments, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and fountains dating from t ...
. It is located in the Street of the Rich in Bab Jedid, near
Tourbet el Bey
The Tourbet el Bey ( ar, تربة الباي) is a Tunisian royal mausoleum in the southwest of the medina of Tunis.
It is indexed as one of the biggest historical residences of
in the inventory of Jacques Revault, member of the Middle East and Mediterranean Studies Research Group.
History
At the end of the 18th century, the rich Mahmoud Djellouli bought a beautiful residence that was a gift from the sovereign
Hussein I
Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of ...
for his daughter, Princess Lalla Fatma, wife of the prime minister
Rejeb Khaznadar
Rejeb Khaznadar ( ar, رجب خزندار; died May 21, 1797 in Tunis) was a Tunisian politician and before that he was a mamluk of Greek origin. He became Prime Minister of the Beylik of Tunis in 1759, becoming the first Prime Minister in the his ...
.
At the beginning of the 19th century, after modifications and extensions were added, the residence became a magnificent palace, that gave to the street where it is located the name of the "Street of the Rich", because, at that time, the Djellouli family's wealth was very important.
Extensions of the palace continued even after Mahmoud Djellouli's death with his two sons, the
qaid
Qaid ( ar , قائد ', "commander"; pl. '), also spelled kaid or caïd, is a word meaning "commander" or "leader." It was a title in the Norman kingdom of Sicily, applied to palatine officials and members of the ''curia'', usually to those w ...
s Farhat and Hussein.
Architecture
The palace's decoration is a mixture of the traditional local style and the Western one. This association can be noticed in the columns with Turkish capitals, Italian and Qallaline faience, and Hispano-Maghrebi
ceiling
A ceiling is an overhead interior surface that covers the upper limits of a room. It is not generally considered a structural element, but a finished surface concealing the underside of the roof structure or the floor of a story above. Ceilings ...
s.
In Dar Djellouli you can find all parts of a typical Tunisian residence of that time: a ''driba'', a ''skifa'' or
corridor
Corridor or The Corridor may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''The Corridor'' (1968 film), a 1968 Swedish drama film
* ''The Corridor'' (1995 film), a 1995 Lithuanian drama film
* ''The Corridor'' (2010 film), a 2010 Canadia ...
, a spacious courtyard surrounded by big suites with alcoves at the ground floor, and common parts at the first floor (like the
kitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...
, the
hammam
A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited f ...
, service rooms, etc.) with two small halls, a floor for hosts or ''sraya'' and a resting room (''kushk'') for the house master on the top of the
balcony
A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor.
Types
The traditional Maltese balcony is ...