NATIONAL BARDO MUSEUM

The Bardo Museum is housed in a former Ottoman villa in the Algiers heights, allegedly built by a wealthy Tunisian in the late ^18th century. Acquired by General Exelmans in 1830, it reverted to the agha of Biskra, Ali Bey, in 1875, until it became the property of a certain Pierre Joret in 1879. A music lover with a passion for history, he made extensive alterations to the villa, without altering its appearance, in order to host concerts, including one by Camille Saint-Saëns, and a collection of prehistoric artefacts. In 1926, the villa was ceded to the French government, which transformed it into the Musée d'Ethnographie et d'Art Indigène. Inaugurated in 1930, to mark the centenary of colonization, the museum became the Musée de Préhistoire et d'Ethnographie, then the Musée du Bardo in 1985, and was classified as a historic monument the same year. Nestling in an exquisite garden, the villa, which combines the traditional elements of Ottoman architecture (precious woods, earthenware, wrought iron, low doors, baffles, a verdant inner courtyard with a marble fountain basin, etc.), houses some very interesting collections of remains, most of which were discovered during excavations carried out in Algeria.

Here, visitors can discover prehistoric collections from the Maghreb and Sahara: Paleolithic and Neolithic tools, pottery, idols and more. Also on display are reproductions of rock frescoes. Also on display are jaw and parietal fragments of an Atlanthropus mauritanicus, which lived around 500,000 years ago at Ternifine, in the Mascara region. Numerous protohistoric finds such as bronze rings, engraved slabs... And the tomb of Tinhinan, the legendary ancestor of the Tuareg, whose skeleton was found in 1926 near Abalessa in the Hoggar. A showcase displays the queen's jewels found in the tumulus housing her tomb. The whole section on the exhibition of Algerian jewelry is magnificent and fascinating!

The ethnographic section includes an urban section (brassware, rifles, swords, Berber jewelry, traditional costumes from Constantine, Algiers and Tlemcen, pottery and chests from Kabylie...), a Saharan section (collections from the Hoggar: painted leather objects, saddles, shields, daggers...) and a section devoted to Black Africa.

The villa is also home to the CNRPAH (Centre national de la recherche préhistorique, anthropologique et historique), formerly the CRAPE, founded in 1955 and directed from 1969 to 1980 by Mouloud Mammeri, champion of Berber culture.