Name

Tunisian Pavilion, Exposition Universelle 1889

Address
75007 Paris
Geographical Hierarchy
Author and year of editing
Franziska Niemand 2025
Information About the Building

At the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, Tunisia was represented in the exhibition parc by several connected pavilions with the character of a village instead of one single edifice. It was the first time that Tunis was represented as a French colony at an Exposition Universelle in Paris. The French architect Henri Saladin was commissioned with the planning of the architecture of the Tunisian pavilion.
The main pavilion structured around a large courtyard assembled replications of several Tunisian buildings. The central three-arched porch supposedly was referencing the interior facades of the Bardo Palace, the structure on the right resembled the Souk-el-Bey in Tunis, and the one on the left was reproducing the Koubba in the Sidi-ben-Arouz mosque (Salvari, 1890, p. 30). A domed mosque was inspired by the Okba mosque in Kairouan, while the minaret resembled the one from the Sidi-ben-Arouz mosque in Tunis (p. 32). These replicas of monuments were accompanied by several smaller pavilions like a souk with various stores, the Pavillon de l’Exposition des Fôrets de Tunis, or the Maison du Djérid showcasing an Arab interior animated by mannequins in local clothing (p. 52/83).

Literature

Salvari, P. (1890). La Tunisie à l'Exposition. Paris : Augustin Challamel, Libraire Coloniale. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k992543m

Bacha, M. (2009). Henri Saladin (1851-1923). Un architecte « Beaux-Arts » promoteur de l’art islamique tunisien. In N. Oulebsir, & M. Volait (Eds.), L’Orientalisme architectural entre imaginaires et savoirs, (pp. 1–16). Paris : Publications de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art.

Citation suggestion
Niemand, F. (2025). Tunisian Pavilion, Exposition Universelle 1889. In Vitrosearch. Retrieved July 1, 2025 from https://test.vitrosearch.ch/buildings/2713457.