Sidi Zitouni Mausoleum

This is the restored mausoleum. It can be accessed from the outside or through the refreshment room. It is an example of the architecture of the places of cult on the island. The space itself is part of the exposed content, but it can be the support of a cultural manifestation or a temporary themed exposition.
The old museum of Traditions and Popular Arts of Djerba was arranged in the Sidi Zitouni Zaouia in Houmet Essoug. This monument was constructed at the end of the XVIIIth Century by Hmida Ben Ayyed, the governor, Gueyed, of the island at that time, to commemorate Sheikh Abou Bakr Ezzitouni’s praiseworthy acts in terms of magistracy and especially for having deep-rooted Malikism hold in the island.
The building comprises a library, a kitchen, two courtyards, and three main rooms. The first room, called El Fnar, originally was an open patio, but the supporters of the Sidi Camer brotherhood covered it in the XIXth Century. This room is composed of a square median space surrounded, on the four sides, with bays including two with ornamented wood ceilings while the roof of the two others is composed of three cupolas. The ceiling the median space is in wood and is distinguished by his height and its four rectangular windows. In fact, this space is raised compared to the remaining of the room. There is a small room covered with a cupola the walls of which are ornamented with sculpted plaster motifs on the extremity of the eastern bay at the northern corner. On the western extremity of the same bay, there is another small room covered with a longitudinal vault. A second square room called the Cupola of the Phantom, Kobet El khyel, is surmounted by big cupola. This room could not be dated but it seems to be the most ancient part. Oral sources affirm that it was used for the treatment of mental illnesses.
The square funerary room that dates back to the XVIIIth Century is paved with earthenware tiles, covered with a hemispheric cupola composed of ceramic necks, and covered with flat tiles varnished in green on the exterior. Sculpted plaster frames figure on the walls of this room. Worked and painted wood cenotaphs found in the zouia are also exposed in this room. They probably used to cover the tombs of Sidi Zitouni and his descendents.




 
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