Name of Monument:

École Polytechnique du Bardo

Location:

Le Bardo, Tunis, Tunisia

Date of Monument:

1840

History:

Founded in 1837 and opened on the 5 March 1840 by order of the bey, the École Polytechnique du Bardo was the first military academy in Ottoman Tunisia. Conscious of Christian Europe's military superiority and following the example of the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms, Ahmed Pacha Bey set out to "modernise" the state and the army. The school was directed by an Italian Orientalist, the Colonel Luigi Calligaris with the help of a Tunisian scholar, Sheikh Mahmoud Kabadu. The state was forced to shut down the school in 1868 due to lack of funds. It educated the first generation of Tunisian who weren't hostile to the West.

Description:

Located inside the Palais du Bardo, this school offered a six year course to any 15 to 20 year old student who could pass its rigorous selection process. The best students would then go on to complete their studies at the École Saint-Cyr in France. The English, French and Italian professors here taught sciences as well as literature and French and Italian. The top students had their first real test when they were called to fight in the Crimean war of October 1854, and later in the resistance to the French occupation in 1881. Today, the school is located opposite the Musée du Bardo, and has preserved is grandiose façade decorated with Italian marble and the beylical coat of arms.

Citation of this web page:

Saloua Khadhar Zangar "École Polytechnique du Bardo" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monuments;AWE;tn;19;en

Prepared by: Saloua Khadhar Zangar
Translation by: Flaminia Baldwin

MWNF Working Number: TN 019