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Name of Monument:

Carthage Cathedral

Location:

Carthage, Tunisia

Date of Monument:

19th century

History:

This old Catholic cathedral is located on the Byrsa Hill, near the Carthage archaeological site. It was built by the King of France in honour of his grandfather, King Louis IX, in the very place he had died of the plague. The cathedral is also evidence of the Tunisian beys' tolerance and their help in protecting the Christian religion in the Regency of Tunis in the 19th century. Building works began in 1884, and it was consecrated by the French Protectorate on 15 May 1890. It became the primatial cathedral of Africa once the title of The Primate of Africa was returned to the Cardinal Lavigerie, who was also the Archidiocese of Algiers and Carthage. It was no longer used as a place of worship after Tunisian independence, and has become an important landmark for tourism and culture, having been renamed the Acropolium de Carthage in 1993.

Description:

The Saint-Louis de Carthage Cathedral was built on the top the Byrsa Hill, the highest point in Punic Carthage, on the site of the Roman Capitol over an area of 1,800 m2. It is built in a North African Byzantine style, supported by 174 marble columns with golden capitals and wooden painted ceilings imported from Europe and carved with arabesques. Inside the cathedral, the choir rises in the shape of two semi-circular arches, covered by a sky-blue dome. It is built with three naves and has an ambulatory on the first floor. Light shines through 284 stained-glass windows decorated with arabesques, with those on the central nave depicting Saint Louis and Saint Augustine, the cathedral's two patron saints.

Citation of this web page:

Saloua Khadhar Zangar "Carthage Cathedral" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=monuments;AWE;tn;25;en

Prepared by: Saloua Khadhar Zangar
Translation by: Flaminia Baldwin

MWNF Working Number: TN 025

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