Dâr ‘Uthmân

This palace is in the south-east end of the medina. It is built on a traditional plan yet features architectural and decorative aspects of Hafsid, Andalusian and Turkish origin. Originally the residence of ‘Uthmān Dey, it became the home of Bey Husayn. It subsequently was used as a military supply department and then converted into an ethnological museum (1936–1957). It is currently the headquarters for the preservation of the medina of Tunis.

The architectural style of the palace can be found in most monuments of the same type. The monumental entrance is surmounted by a canopy and flanked by two small corner columns. The door opens into a bent vestibule that gives access to a central courtyard preceded by two galleries. The courtyard is surrounded by four T-shaped rooms, each containing two alcoves. The walls are covered with marble, stone and ceramic plates. Marble columns, placed on bases and surmounted by Andalusian and Corinthian capitals, receive the thrust of pointed horseshoe arches with alternating black and white marble voussoirs. These elements of support ease the strain on the roofing, which comprises a terrace roof, a saddle roof and vaults. The doors are set in rectangular marble frames and open in pointed horseshoe arches placed on marble jambs. The façades are decorated with niches that frame openings and give out onto the patio through pointed horseshoe arches, each resting on two jambs. Ceramic and stucco are reserved for the decoration of the façades. There is no lack of epigraphic decoration; it appears in the form of Qur’anic verses written in flowery Kufic letters.

Dar ‘Uthmān and Dar Lasram are prototypes of homes of Tunis notables between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The former offers a fine example of how various foreign contributions transplanted on to traditional Ifriqiyan architecture made housing in Tunis a reflection of the city’s Mediterranean vocation at the time. The plan featuring a central core with a courtyard surrounded by T-shaped rooms may be a traditional one, but most of the decoration represents an intermixture of different Mediterranean influences. Next to Hispano-Moresque ceilings with lavish stylised floral decoration there are Italian style roofs, made in particular by Venetian craftsmen. The bedrooms and courtyard are decorated in Andalusian type stuccowork with plaited geometric motifs, stylised floral decorations and recticurvilinear arcades. However, the stuccowork also features certain Turkish motifs related to Ottoman flora such as cypress trees and bouquets of flowers. This blend of Hispano-Moresque and Ottoman contributions is also discernable in the ceramic panels covering the walls of the bedrooms and the courtyard galleries. Since the capitals were made of marble, generally Carrara marble from Italy, they could be sculpted in different styles: Hafsid, Hispano-Moresque, neo-Corinthian or Italian. Some of the capitals support abacuses or springers decorated with the Ottoman crescent. Thus contemporaneous homes in Tunis reflect its Mediterranean vocation. Ironically, these motley elements give Tunisian architecture a unique personality. Tunisian craftsmen managed to assimilate all these influences and create an original art out of them.