Guellala Museum

ETERNAL DJERBA

"The enchanted island, memory of the Mediterranean."

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With an area of 514 km², Djerba is the largest island in the southern Mediterranean basin. Its strategic geographical location in the Gulf of Gabes, the old little Sirte has aroused since the most remote times the greed of the great powers in the old world. Starting from the principle that we can never change destiny but on the other hand we must fully assume it so that we can deal with it.
The inhabitants of the island, endowed with great moral and social values such as tolerance, plural and peaceful coexistence and religious and community coexistence have always received with open arms, emigrants, persecuted refugees, traders and adventurers.
Thanks to this spirit of openness, they have always lived in symbiosis with the great and illustrious ancient civilizations which have followed one another on the shores of the Mediterranean basin since the dawn of time.

In a context of permanent tensions and against a backdrop of a chaotic and unstable situation, the Djerbian islanders known for their ingenuity, their prowess, their creative spirit and their pragmatism have taken full advantage of the know-how, innovations and new techniques which never ceased to flock to the island during the different periods of ancient times.

Most historians agree on the undeniable merits of these islanders who, through their lucidity and clairvoyance, were able to establish balanced relationships with others by assimilating all their contributions and skills without being assimilated.

To carry out this strategy which allows them to preserve their identity and their right to be different and to avoid them being constantly receptive and dependent, they have contributed to perfection, to enrich, develop and adapt to their needs and their environments. everything that falls into their hands, they have, in a way, added their grain of salt and put their stamp on everything that is imported.

This option ended up paying off and bearing fruit since they succeeded in solving wonderfully what historians call the difficult equation: while keeping their openness to the outside world, they at the same time established and maintained cultural borders and led throughout the Middle Ages (1135-1560) a legendary struggle against invaders such as the Spanish Empire at its height and its Christian allies throughout Europe and succeeded in setting up territorial demarcation lines ,

This prestigious past and this glorious history of the island of Djerba which have made its reputation on a planetary scale and are at the origin of its unique heritage in its kind and whose attributes carry great exceptional cultural values.

The writings, chronicles and testimonies of several travellers, poets and artists who came from all over the world, evoke and describe an island that is both picturesque and striking. To express their admiration, historians of great renown baptized it: “The Enchanted Island” and eminent novelists such as Flaubert who fell under a stroke of wonder nicknamed it “Memory of the Mediterranean”.

The Museum presented collections consisting of several masterpieces of the island's cultural heritage in all its glory. It has exhibited marvels of traditional arts and has reconstructed trades, ceremonies and scenes of rare and disappearing daily life with ancestral origins and several centuries old.

It is with great pleasure that the museum invites visitors to go back in time and discover "its secret garden" and its magical circuits where each art object challenges you to tell you a beautiful story and offer you moving sequences and strong moments, of a spectacular adventure undertaken by a small community of islanders in the sea of the old little Sirte in the extreme south of the Mediterranean basin. You will always be welcome to share with us an unusual journey through time past in the footsteps of the famous ancient Greek poet Homer (IX BC) who has the great merit of having brought the island of Djerba early in the world. history in his famous story "The odyssey XII S BC". You will be in the company of the curator of the Museum who, together with designers from all disciplines, has set an ambitious objective which consists first of all in giving back to the legend of Ulysses in the Odyssey its great symbolic value and its evocative power. and to pay homage to the ancestors by making known their various exploits, their magnificent creations and their immense ingenuity.

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