Monastir, Tunisia

Geography

Monastir is a town on Tunisia’s central-east coast. It lies 22 kilometres east of Sousse and 140 kilometres south of Tunis. Monastir sits on a peninsula, bordered by the Gulf of Hammamet to the north and the Gulf of Monastir to the south.

This seaside town belongs to the Governorate of Monastir (roughly equivalent to a county). It has around 95,000 inhabitants and covers nearly 2,300 hectares.

History

Ancient Ruspina

Monastir sits over the ruins of an ancient Punic-Roman city called Ruspina, a name meaning “peninsula”, as the town’s position was already a strategic one. This city existed for close to ten centuries, from the 4th century BC to the 6th century AD. Several ancient authors mention Ruspina as having been of great help to Hannibal Barca during the Second Punic War in the 3rd century BC. Ruspina was also the first town to ally itself with Julius Caesar, and it quickly prospered after his victory.

Monastir, an Arab-Muslim town

Monastir was the first Arab-Muslim town built in Ifriqiya. It served to defend the Aghlabid kingdom and its capital, Kairouan. With that in mind, in 796, on the orders of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, Monastir was given the largest and oldest Ribat in the Maghreb. This fortress, in the heart of the town, boasts magnificent towers and bastions.

Throughout the 16th century, during the Spanish-Ottoman conflict, Monastir was a target for attacks. Having avoided annexation by the Spanish, the town organised itself as a people’s republic in 1534. The Spanish nonetheless annexed it in 1550. In 1554 the Ottomans annexed it in turn, attaching it to the Regency of Tunis in 1574. From the start of the Ottoman presence in Tunisia, Monastir had a caidat (local governorship) responsible, among other things, for general administration, upholding justice and collecting taxes.

The modern town

The town was relatively sidelined under the French protectorate. After independence, Monastir regained its standing. As the birthplace of Habib Bourguiba, the first president of the Tunisian Republic, it became, in 1974, the capital of the governorate that bears its name.

Facilities and monuments

Bourguiba had several facilities and monuments built here. In 1963, during his lifetime, he commissioned a mausoleum, which now holds the remains of the first Tunisian president, who died in 2000. Set in the centre of town, this impressive monument resembles a mosque, crowned by a large golden dome and flanked by two minarets each around twenty metres high. Bourguiba also had a presidential palace and a mosque built in his honour.

The building of Monastir international airport at the entrance to the town, together with the development of the Skanes tourist zone, has made it a major hub of Tunisian tourism. Beyond tourism, the town is an important medical and academic centre. It is home to universities of medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, as well as private clinics and a university teaching hospital (CHU). Monastir also has a significant transhipment port for the olive-oil market.