Bardo National Museum
Palace museum holding one of the world’s great collections of Roman mosaics.
The Bardo National Museum occupies part of a former palace complex in Le Bardo, about four kilometres west of central Tunis. The site was a residence of Tunisian rulers from the fifteenth century and was enlarged by the Husainid beys in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The museum was inaugurated on 7 May 1888 as the Musée Alaoui, named after the reigning bey, Ali III, and took its present name after independence in 1956. The palace buildings were classified as a historic monument in 1985.
The museum holds one of the largest collections of Roman mosaics in the world, gathered from sites across Tunisia such as Carthage, Dougga, El Djem, Sousse and Utica. Among the best known is the third-century mosaic from Sousse showing the poet Virgil between two Muses. Other galleries present prehistoric material, Punic stelae and ex-votos, Greek bronzes and marbles recovered from the Mahdia shipwreck, early Christian mosaics and Islamic objects, including pages of the Blue Qur'an of Kairouan.
An extension designed by SCPA Codou-Hindley with Amira Nouira and completed in 2012 added about 9,000 square metres, bringing the total floor area to some 20,000 square metres. The historic rooms retain painted wooden ceilings, carved stucco, tilework and domed halls from the beylical period. The museum was the site of an armed attack in March 2015. It closed in July 2021 and reopened on 14 September 2023 with refurbished galleries, and work on reorganising some rooms has continued since.
Highlights
- One of the world's largest collections of Roman mosaics
- Third-century mosaic of Virgil seated between two Muses, found at Sousse
- Greek bronzes and marbles recovered from the Mahdia shipwreck
- Beylical palace rooms with painted ceilings, carved stucco and domes
- Pages of the Blue Qur'an of Kairouan in the Islamic collections
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