Bardo Museum

The world's greatest collection of Roman mosaics outside Italy. Room after room of stunning floor mosaics depicting wine, harvests, Bacchus, and daily Roman life in Africa. Simply extraordinary.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Stand Before the Poet Who Justified Carthage's Destruction History · Price: low

   Where: Room 13 (the Virgil Room), ground floor of the main palace wing. The mosaic is mounted on the wall at eye level — you'll see it immediately when you enter the room. It's roughly 1.22 metres square.

   What: This is the oldest known portrait of Virgil in the world. No earlier image of Rome's greatest poet exists. He sits in a white toga with gold embroidery, a scroll open on his lap. On the scroll: verse 8 of Book I of the Aeneid — "Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso..." ("Muse, tell me the causes, what wounded divine will..."). Flanking him: Clio (muse of history, reading) on the left; Melpomene (muse of tragedy, holding a tragic mask) on the right. The mosaic was found by chance in 1896 in a military camp on the edge of Sousse — ancient Hadrumetum, 140km south of here. A Roman villa floor, discovered by soldiers digging. And the verse on the scroll? It's the opening of the epic in which Aeneas flees Troy, lands at Carthage, falls desperately in love with Dido — Carthage's founding queen — and then abandons her at divine command to sail for Italy. Dido burns herself alive on a pyre as his ships disappear. Her dying curse called down eternal war between their peoples. The three Punic Wars followed. Rome destroyed Carthage in 146 BC, killed or enslaved every person in it, and salted the ground. Virgil wrote this myth to explain why. The only portrait of the man who wrote that story... is in the museum of the city he wrote it about.

   How: The museum opens at 9:00am (Oct–Apr: 9:30am), closed Mondays. Entry is approximately 11 Tunisian Dinars (~$4 USD). Take Metro Line 4 from Bab Saadoun or Republique station to the 'Bardo' stop — 10 minutes, costs 0.5DT. Or taxi from city centre (~5DT, 5 minutes). Arrive at opening to have the mosaics to yourself before tour groups arrive around 10am. Stand in front of the Virgil mosaic and read the open scroll. The eighth verse. The one that starts the war.

   Backup: If the room is temporarily closed for maintenance (this happens), ask a guard — they often allow brief access between tour groups. The mosaic is never 'off display'; the room simply has rotating access during busy periods.

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2. 2 Find Neptune's 140 Square Metres in the Entrance Hall History · Free

   Where: The museum's entrance hall — you cannot miss it. The Triumph of Neptune from the House of Sorothus fills 134–140 square metres of wall and ceiling. It is one of the largest preserved mosaics on earth.

   What: This is what Roman Africa could do when a wealthy landowner wanted to demonstrate power. The god Neptune rides his chariot pulled by hippocampi (horse-fish hybrids). Around him: 56 medallions — 35 circular, 21 concave hexagonal — filled with Nereids riding sea monsters, mermaids holding musical instruments, half-bird creatures, agricultural scenes, the four seasons in figural form. Every piece is coloured limestone and marble, cut by hand in the late 1st or early 2nd century AD in Sousse. The man who commissioned this mosaic — a wealthy estate owner from Hadrumetum — wanted his guests to feel as though they'd walked into Neptune's domain. The colours are more vivid than most Italian examples because North African limestone produced stronger pigments. You are looking at the ceiling and walls of a Roman dining room, 1,800 years later, inside an Ottoman palace.

   How: This is the room you enter first. You're already standing in it. This step is free — the only cost is your general admission ticket. Take 10 minutes here before moving to the gallery rooms. Count the medallions. Find the season you were born in. Look for the octopus in the lower border.

   Backup: If the entrance hall is crowded (it often is mid-morning), return at the end of your visit — the light from the windows changes dramatically in the afternoon and the colours read differently.

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3. 3 Decode the Wine Invitation Mosaic from Dougga's Dining Room Wine · Free

   Where: The galleries displaying mosaics from Dougga (ancient Thugga), usually in the upper floor Roman galleries. Ask a guard for 'la mosaïque de Dougga — les porteurs d'amphores' (the Dougga mosaic with the amphora bearers) if you need directions.

   What: A 3rd-century AD floor mosaic from the triclinium — the formal dining room — of a luxury villa at Dougga. The scene: xenia, the ancient custom of hospitality. Two enormous slaves pour wine from huge amphorae. Engraved on the amphorae in Greek lettering: **PIE** (ΠΙΕ — 'drink!') and **ZESES** (ΖΗCΗC — 'and you will live!'). Flanking them: a figure carrying another amphora, a figure carrying laurel branches and a basket of roses. This is a wine invitation, permanently tiled into a floor. Fourteen centuries before anyone thought to write 'wine not?' on a kitchen sign, a Roman landowner in North Africa had it cut into marble and laid beneath his guests' feet: drink, and you will live. In the same Dougga collection, look for the companion mosaic: Dionysus standing with a spear raised, supported by a maenad, a satyr, and aged Silenus. He faces a ship of pirates. The myth: Tyrrhenian pirates kidnapped Dionysus to sell as a slave. He filled their ship with vines. Turned them into dolphins. A leopard attacks one pirate mid-transformation. This was the Roman vision of wine's power — civilising, divine, and terrifying when disrespected.

   How: Both mosaics are included in general admission (~11DT). The Dougga rooms are less crowded than the famous Virgil and Neptune galleries. Photograph the Greek lettering on the amphorae close up — PIE and ZESES — and show it at dinner tonight.

   Backup: The Dominus Julius mosaic (also in the Dougga/Carthage galleries) shows a wealthy estate owner surrounded by all four seasons of his land — harvesting, hunting, abundance. If the amphora mosaic room is temporarily roped off, this is an equally compelling window into Roman African agricultural life.

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4. 4 Watch Ulysses Listen to the Sirens While His Crew Goes Deaf Adventure · Free

   Where: The Dougga galleries, upper floor. The Ulysses and the Sirens mosaic is usually displayed near the Dionysus and Pirates mosaic — both came from the same house at Dougga, the House of Dionysos and Ulysses, excavated together.

   What: This is from Emperor Gallienus's era, ~260–280 AD. Ulysses is strapped to the mast. His crew rows with their ears stopped with wax — faces blank, arms working, hearing nothing. Ulysses hears everything. The Sirens, depicted with bird bodies (not the fish-tailed mermaids you've seen elsewhere), sing directly at him. His face: not ecstasy. Not agony. Concentration. He chose to hear them and chose to survive them simultaneously. This is the Roman interpretation of the Odyssey — not a story about avoiding temptation, but about enduring knowledge while others remain protected by ignorance. The same homeowner who commissioned the Dionysus pirates mosaic next door also ordered this one. He wanted his dining room floors to tell the story of two different relationships to the divine: Dionysus (punish those who disrespect the god) and Ulysses (survive the knowledge that would kill ordinary men). Both mosaics are 1,800 years old. Both are cut from coloured stone by hand. Both came from the floor of one man's dining room in a North African town you've probably never heard of.

   How: General admission included. This is one of the Bardo's signature images — reproduced on museum merchandise, scholarly publications, and tourism materials. Stand close enough to count the oar strokes.

   Backup: If this specific gallery is being rearranged (the museum has been reorganising since its 2023 reopening), ask any guard for 'Ulysse et les Sirènes' — every staff member knows where it is.

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5. 5 Toast Carthage's Winemakers at Dar El Jeld Before the Night Ends Wine · Price: moderate

   Where: Dar El Jeld Restaurant, 5-10 Rue Dar El Jeld, La Kasba, Tunis Medina. Phone: +216 71 560 916. Approximately 30–40 minutes by taxi from the Bardo Museum (~8–12DT). One of Tunisia's most celebrated restaurants, listed in the World's 50 Best Discovery guide.

   What: The setting — an 18th-century Tunisian townhouse in the old Medina, with vibrant zellige tiling, a candlelit courtyard, and live zither music — pairs with what you've just seen at the Bardo better than any other wine experience in Tunis. The mosaics you spent the day with are Roman African art. This meal is the descendant of the same culture. Order: **Muscat de Kelibia** — Tunisia's most distinctive wine, from Cap Bon peninsula, 1.5 hours from here. Dry, often slightly oxidised, with ripe aromas of rose, lilac, peach, and melon. Pairs with the seafood that begins every traditional Tunisian meal. As you pour it, remember: wine has been made in this region continuously since the Carthaginians, since the man named Mago who wrote the world's first viticulture treatise in Punic — 28 volumes — in this city, before Rome destroyed it and translated his books. The Triumph of Bacchus mosaic you saw today (the one that took gunfire in 2015) was made by people whose grandchildren's grandchildren were still making wine here when the Bardo palace was built. Nothing about Tunisian wine is accidental. If available, also ask for **Magon** red — the full-bodied blend named directly after Carthage's agronomist-author.

   How: Book ahead — Dar El Jeld fills, especially on weekends. Budget 40–80DT per person for a full dinner with wine. Open evenings only; confirm current hours when booking.

   Backup: If Dar El Jeld is full, Fondouk el Attarine (also in the Medina) offers a similar traditional setting with Tunisian wines. Or return to your hotel and ask the concierge for a local wine bar — the Tunis centre has several serving Cap Bon producers.

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