DAR OTHMAN

Thanks to a well-armed fleet Othman Dey (1954-1610) "organized the chase and his hands were filled with spoils". He had this palace built, one of the oldest and most beautiful in Tunis, for his personal use, far from the Kasbah, the Janissaries and their revolts. Bounded by the Rue des Teinturiers, the Rue El Moujahidine, the palace formed a complex looking exclusively on to the Rue M'Bazaa, access to which was protected by gates. Othman Dey occupied this palace until his death in 1610.
The monument is distinguished by a majestic façade. The door is surmounted by two carved lintels separated by a pointed arch with alternate coloured archstones. Two superimposed marble colonettes flank the façade. The walls of the driba (entrance hall) have arcatures above stone benches. The multicoloured ceramic and decorative plasterwork is completed by black and white marble cladding.
A courtyard runs between two lines of horseshoe arches with black and white arch stones, supported by columns with Moorish capitals. This succession of arches follows on down the other two sides of the courtyard in two blind arches. The paving of the courtyard had disappeared, so the courtyard was redeveloped as an inside garden in 1936. The monument is soon to house the handicrafts museum and will be complementary to the Dar Ben Abdallah museum.