NATIONAL BARDO MUSEUM

Made infamous after the 2015 attacks, the Bardo Museum, one of the most important archaeological museums in the Maghreb, has finally reopened! If you only had one museum to see, this would be it! Created in 1882 in one of the pavilions of the Beylical Palace, it was built by the Hafsids. The museum is located on the outskirts of the city towards Béja and Bizerte, next to the university campus. The museum's exhibits are divided into four departments, with collections representing different periods in the country's history: Carthaginian, Punic, Christian and Arab-Muslim. Another department is devoted to Greek bronze and marble objects from underwater excavations in Mahdia. The Bardo Museum is renowned for housing the world's largest collection of Roman mosaics from Carthage, Sousse, Dougga and El Jem. Some of the works on display are unique, such as the "Virgil" mosaic. These pieces are an invaluable source for research into daily life in Roman Africa. From the same Roman period, the museum also boasts a rich collection of marble statues representing Roman divinities and emperors. Not-to-be-missed pieces include

The Triumph of Neptune. Dating from the late ^2nd century, this is the world's largest mosaic, with 56 medallions; it has not been restored, but preserved in the state in which it was found; the mosaics are in natural stone.

Greek works discovered in the Mahdia wreck excavations. The world's first underwater excavations, carried out in 1907, uncovered a collection of bronze statues dating from the ^1st century, as well as a marble bust of Aphrodite.

The mosaics of El Jem. Impressive in terms of their number, quality of preservation, size, beauty of detail and the information they provide about the period.

The treasure room. With its stucco ceilings, this room is a measure of the beauty of the Bey's palace, and houses the "Virgil" mosaic, showing the poet flanked by two muses as he prepares to write a poem in honor of Dido, the founder of Carthage; it's a bit like the Tunisian Mona Lisa...

A new department houses the Chemtou treasure, with 1,645 gold coins dating from the ^4th or^5th century BC.

Other must-see pieces include grimacing masks, terracotta statues and steles from the Libyan-Punic period, and the Blue Koran from Kairouan in the Islamic department.