La Basilique

Northern Tunisia


La Basilique is a Roman cistern turned into a church by French missionaries at the end of the 19th century. Delicate and airy it’s not – inside you can see some massive square columns holding up some equally massive arches. The 1500-seat amphitheatre out front has played host to Tabarka’s famous music festivals, although the venue is scheduled to shift to a new, 6000-seat, purpose-built concrete amphitheatre up on a hill behind Les Aiguilles.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Northern Tunisia attractions

1. Les Aiguilles

0.21 MILES

Across from Tabarka's old harbour bay (Ancien Port) from the peninsula, Les Aiguilles (pronounced layz ai-gwee) are a grouping of spiky pinnacles of rock…

2. Statue of Habib Bourguiba

0.34 MILES

This fine statue of Tunisia's first president in reflective pose commemorates the exile of Habib Bourguiba to Tabarka by the French in the early 1950s…

3. Marina

0.4 MILES

The heart of Tabarka is its marina, just northeast of the town centre. It’s a popular place to hang out, go for a drink or stroll.

4. Montazah Beach

0.57 MILES

This beach begins at the marina and stretches eastward around the bay, past the big hotels of the Zone Touristique. The further from the marina you go the…

5. Genoese Fort

0.63 MILES

This fort is Tabarka's most instantly recognised landmark, sitting as it does on a wooded hill guarding the entrance to the harbour. It was built in the…

6. Ras Rajel War Cemetery

6.32 MILES

This neatly tended cemetery contains the graves of 500 Allied soldiers who died in the winter of 1942 following the Axis landings in Tunisia. Sixty of the…

7. Bulla Regia

27.58 MILES

Famed for its extraordinary underground villas, the Roman city of Bulla Regia, 7km northwest of Jendouba, offers a rare opportunity to walk into complete,…

8. Great Mosque

28.74 MILES

The Great Mosque has a square minaret with terracotta tiles on the sides and candy-striped Moorish arches up top. About 150m northwest is the fish-scale…