Dar Ben Abdallah

Dar Ben Abdallah is one of the finest houses in the southern medina and a good place to understand how wealthy families lived in old Tunis. The palace was built in the eighteenth century, with 1796 given as its date, for a notable named Mohamed El Bradai El Ksontini. It was later sold to Slimane Kahia, a general in the Tunisian army, and it takes its present name from its last private owner, the silk merchant Mohamed Tahar Ben Abdallah.

The Office of Tunisian Arts bought the house in 1964 and turned it into a museum of popular arts and traditions, and since 1978 it has presented the daily life of the city's notable families. The displays are divided into two parts. One covers family life and domestic traditions, with costumes, furniture and scenes set in the reception rooms. The other looks at public life and institutions in the old city, including the souks, the mosques and the coffee houses where men met to talk and do business.

The building is as interesting as the collection. Its architecture combines Moorish and Tunisian elements, with a porticoed hall, carved niches and a central courtyard that keeps the rooms cool. Take time to look at the tiles, the carved stucco and the painted ceilings, and notice how the rooms open inwards onto the courtyard rather than the street, a feature of medina houses that you will see in many restored dars now used as hotels and restaurants.

The museum is compact, so allow around an hour. It suits families as well as adults, because the furnished rooms and figures make it easy to imagine daily routines. Opening times are not published in a reliable source we could check, so ask your hotel or guide to confirm before you walk down, and avoid arriving late in the afternoon.

Dar Ben Abdallah lies in the south of the medina near Tourbet el Bey, about a fifteen minute walk from the Zitouna Mosque. Combine the two monuments in one afternoon, then walk back north through the souks, or carry on to the Kasbah square for a taxi.