Saint Louis chapel up on the hill
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Lo que dice el Arxiduc:
“On top of the hill is a pleasant, small church overlooking the cisterns which are all that remain of Carthage. It is the Saint Louis chapel, built with a pious Christian sentiment where Saint Louis of France died. The construction is simple, Gothic, and decorated with the Bourbon fleur-de-lis. Within the garden surrounding the church and closed off by a wall which served the European inhabitants of Tunis as a cemetery, we can see some other ruins and ancient works of art, mostly Roman in origin, though the most valuable have been sent to Europe. Worth noting are the mosaic floors, one of which is now used for a fountain, its image depicting a wide variety of differently coloured and shaped fish swimming.
The view available from just in front of the chapel entrance is grandiose. On one side we see a small white Arab village on a nearly flat slope. On the other we see La Goulette, the lagoon and Tunis, followed by the cisterns, the sea and, in the distance, the ethereally light mountains and a large part of Cape Bon.”
Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria, Tunis. Ein bild aus dem nordafrikanischen leben, Heinrich Mercy, Prague, 1870
Datos proyecto Nixe III:
The most interesting thing about the St. Louis church described by the Archduke is that it does not coincide with the church here today. In fact, the church the Archduke saw was much smaller and demolished to make way for the Cathedral we can see today.
From the Cathedral’s rooftop we can see some of the views the Archduke described, including, for example, the old Punic port, Hammam-Lif and Tunis’ lagoon with the city in the background.
The Cathedral is characterized for including architectural features from the three major Mediterranean religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Photos
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