Tunisia · 17th century
Dar El Bey (Arabic: دار الباي), also known as the government palace (Arabic: قصر الحكومة) is an old palace in the medina of Tunis, more precisely in the city's Kasbah. Nowadays, it serves as the office of the Head of Government of Tunisia but was used by guests of the State previously. It is located south of Government Square, west of Kasbah Square.
The palace was built in the 17th century during the reign of the Muradid Bey Hammuda Pasha Bey. In 1795 the Husainid Bey Hammuda Ibn Ali added another floor to it.
Henri Dunant considers it as «the most beautiful moorish royal house in the world».
It became the main office for the Head of the Tunisian government even before the independence. Mustapha Kaak was the first to fill that position.
The palace's decoration is very rich and diverse with, as an example, sixteen twisted columns with their arches in white marble: These rooms are distinguished by their special rooftops highly decorated with painted scenes and precious materials, as well as Andalusian style faience. The courtyard is paved in white marble and surrounded by a portico.
Text adapted from “Dar El Bey” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Dar El Bey ranks #4,747 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #4 of the 33 mapped in Tunisia. Founded c. 1650, it is older than 25% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 708 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. 12 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Tunis, 1 km away. See how Tunisia compares in the castle statistics.
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