Dar Jellouli Museum (), also known as the Regional Museum of Arts and Folk Traditions, is an
art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...
located in
Tunisia
Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
. It was founded in 1939 by the
French scholar on
Maghrebi
Maghrebi Arabic, often known as ''ad-Dārija'' to differentiate it from Literary Arabic, is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb. It includes the Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian, Libyan, Hassaniya and Saharan Arabic di ...
art
Lucien Golvin, in a palace located in the heart of the ancient city of
Sfax
Sfax ( ; , ) is a major port city in Tunisia, located southeast of Tunis. The city, founded in AD849 on the ruins of Taparura, is the capital of the Sfax Governorate (about 955,421 inhabitants in 2014), and a Mediterranean port. Sfax has a ...
.
[Dar Jellouli Museum.](_blank)
Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 8-2-2017.
History
The house was built by
Andalusian Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
refugees fleeing from the
Spanish persecutions in the 17th century. Since then the house was bought by Farhat al-Jalouli, a military commander from Sfax and a wealthy gun dealer. The son of his grandson, Mahmoud al-Jalouli, was a wealthy businessman as well and he moved to
Medina of Tunis
The Medina of Tunis is the medina quarter of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
The Medina contains some 700 monuments, including palaces, mosques, mausoleums, madrasas and fountains dating from ...
, but five of his sons (Farhat, Hassan, Mohammed, Sadiq and al-Arabi) lived at the house in Sfax as military commanders from the area. The house became their headquarters.
The house became a medical clinic in 1934. In 1939, it became an artistic center under the direction of the French university professor Lucien Golvin. To this day the house has been serving as a regional museum of arts and folk traditions.
Architecture
The facade of the house is modest and its design is purely classical, and it contains many characteristics of Tunisian housing. Around the square courtyard in the center, there are rooms of inverted T shape. The courtyard is located opposite from the entrance door, with its two compartments serving as storage area of supplies.
Museum
In the hallways, scenes from the traditional daily life of the 18th-century Sfax were reconstructed in both urban and rural characters.
On the first floor there are exhibition of several traditional costumes and on the second floor there are several oil paintings and
Islamic calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of penmanship and calligraphy, in the languages which use Arabic alphabet or the Arabic script#Additional letters used in other languages, alphabets derived from it. It is a highly stylized and struc ...
.
See also
*
Douz Museum
*
Nabeul Museum
References
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures completed in the 17th century
Museums in Tunisia
Medina of Sfax