A Quiet Coast with a Stormy Past
By the 19th century, the peninsula of ancient Carthage hosted modest settlements: Sidi Bou Said, clustered around the tomb of a Sufi saint, and Le Kram near the port of La Goulette. The ruins on Byrsa hill watched quietly over a coastline that no longer ruled the seas.
France Returns to Africa—and to Carthage
In 1881, Tunisia became a French protectorate. Charles Lavigerie, archbishop of Algiers, soon became apostolic administrator of Tunis, and then a cardinal. He imagined himself as reviver of the Church of Cyprian and Augustine. In 1884 he achieved his goal: the restoration of the metropolitan see of Carthage, with himself as its first modern archbishop. Pope Leo XIII confirmed Carthage’s primatial status in Africa.
The same year, the Acropolium of Carthage—Saint Louis Cathedral—rose atop Byrsa hill, a Christian monument planted above the layered remains of Punic, Roman, and Byzantine power.
Planes, Lycées, and Suburban Growth
The commune of Carthage was officially created in 1919 under the Bey of Tunis. A seaplane base followed in 1920; by 1938, a Tunis airfield was handling thousands of passengers on the Paris–Tunis route. After World War II, construction began on Tunis‑Carthage Airport, later the hub of Tunisair.
During the 1950s, the Lycée Français de Carthage served the French community until Tunisia’s independence led to its transfer and renaming. Meanwhile, the Tunis conurbation gradually wrapped around the airport. Carthage became an affluent suburb between Sidi Bou Said and Le Kram, with a population just over 21,000 by 2013.
A Symbolic Power Center
Though Tunis is the capital, Carthage has become the “place of emblematic power.” The presidential palace stands on its coast; TGM commuter trains stop at Carthage Byrsa, Carthage Hannibal, Carthage Présidence, and other stations whose very names—Hannibal, Byrsa, Salammbô—turn daily commutes into quiet lessons in history.
The city that once defied Rome now lives on as an address, a skyline, and a memory-laden landscape at the edge of modern Tunis.