History
The fort was built on the orders of the Hafsid sultan of Tunis around the turn of the 15th century, after troops of Alfonso V of Aragon had been driven from the island, on the ruins of the Roman town of Girba, whose stone was reused in its walls; it was enlarged around 1450. In March 1560, after a local defeat, the island's sheikh handed the fortress to the Viceroy of Sicily, but after the naval Battle of Djerba the forces of the corsair Turgut Reis and Piyale Pasha besieged it from May until late July and took it, inflicting heavy losses on the defenders. Ghazi Mustapha, the qaid installed by Turgut, rebuilt the fort between 1560 and 1567, adding apartments and a small mosque, and the fort's second name, Borj El Ghazi Mustapha, comes from him. French troops occupied it in July 1881, and in 1904 it was declared a historic monument and adapted as a museum; it was thoroughly restored in the later 20th century.
What to see
The rectangular fort, about 68 by 53 metres with round and square towers, stands on the shore some half a kilometre north of central Houmt Souk. Visitors see the courtyard with traces of successive garrisons, a room displaying finds from the 1975 excavations and two mausoleums, those of Sidi Saad and Ghazi Mustapha. The wall-walks look out over the harbour, the sea and the nine-metre obelisk standing to the west of the fort.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q893447
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