TUNISIEAt the heart of the medina you will find a city centre full of life and entertainment with its traditional souks and cafes, the Rhaba. The surrounding buildings are inspired by Italian, Tunisian, Moroccan or oriental architecture.
The Medina is full of reproductions of symbolic monuments related to the different eras and civilizations of Arab history. The Skia al kahla gate for example is representative of Fatimid architecture. The Red Dome is as a jewel of Arabic architecture in Sicily and the Golden Tower, recently transformed into a marine museum is one of the most beautiful testimonies of the Muslim civilization of Seville. You may also admire the Blue Tower, a tribute to the Majorelle Garden in Marrakech.
Further away stand the ancient walls of the city of Mahdia dating from the 10th century, as well as the ruins of the ramparts of the city of Sfax. Theses incredible memorial sites are will allow you to dive into Tunisia’s legends and history and legends.
Located at the east side of the Medina Mediterranea, a majestic building topped by a red dome evokes one of the jewels of Arab architecture in Sicily. It is the Saint-John of the Hermits in Palermo, a former mosque transformed into a church.
In the year 827, the Aghlabid army, part of the port of Sousse and directed by Asad ibn al- Fourat, definitively conquered Sicily. It is now part of Ifriqiya, the future Tunisia. Thus, for 250 years, the island is under Arab domination: aghlabid, then fatimid. A large mosque, surmounted by red domes, is built on the site of an ancient church.
At the beginning of the 11th century, Sicily was conquered by the Normans. This people, from the North of Europe, is dazzled by the splendor of Arab civilization. Roger II, the first king of Normandy Sicily, and his son Guillaume, have the intelligence to preserve it and even to appropriate it. Thus they preserve the use of the Arabic language, and surround themselves with Arab administrators and scholars. Roger II of Sicily did not destroy the mosque, but transformed it into a church. It remains to this day the most "Arab" monument of Palermo.