Dar Ben Abdallah Museum

About Dar Ben Abdallah Museum

Palace of the Medina of Tunis

Dar Ben Abdallah is an old palace in the southern quarter of the medina of Tunis, near Tourbet el Bey, counted among the medina's four great houses with Dar Lasram, Dar Bach Hamba and Dar Hussein. It was built in the late 18th century by a notable, Mohamed el-Bradai el-Ksontini, who sold it to Slimane Kahia, a general in the Tunisian army; it takes its present name from its last owner, the wealthy silk trader Mohamed Tahar Ben Abdallah. The national crafts office bought it in 1964, and since 1978 it has been the museum of popular arts and traditions of Tunis. Its rooms open onto a large inner courtyard entered through a monumental doorway, with decoration mixing Andalusian and Italian-inspired styles: tiles, carved stucco, marble columns and painted wooden ceilings. The displays show the life of the medina's notables in the 19th and 20th centuries in two parts: family life and traditions, with rooms refurnished with costume, jewellery and furniture and scenes of weddings and births; and the public life of the city, its souqs, mosques and cafés.

Where:

Tunis, Tunisia