The Byrsa (194 ft.), the ancient castle-hill of Carthage, 660 yds. from the sea, was the site in the Punic period of a temple of Eshmun, and in the Roman period of a temple of Æsculapius and of the palace of the proconsul. It is now called the Colline de St. Louis de Carthage and is occupied by the chapel of St. Louis, the seminary, and the archiepiscopal cathedral. The terrace on the side next the sea, adjoining the Hôtel St. Louis de Carthage (p. [343]), commands a delightful *View of the gulf of Tunis and the site of ancient Carthage.
The Grand Séminaire de Carthage, founded in 1875 by Card. Lavigerie as a mission-house and seminary for the Pères Missionnaires d’Afrique (commonly called Pères Blancs from their white semi-Arab garb), contains the *Musée Lavigerie, dating from 1875, where the yield of the excavations made by Père Delattre, the learned principal of the seminary, is preserved. Adm. on Mon., Thurs., Frid., and Sat., 2 to 5.30; on Sun. and holidays 2–3 and 4 to 5.30; probably also before 11, and on other afternoons, on application (closed in Holy Week after Wed.). Visitors make a donation to the offertory-box. No catalogue.
In the Seminary Garden, below the small Chapelle de St. Louis, built in 1845 to the memory of King Louis the Saint (see above), are preserved eight barrel-vaults, with semicircular niches, relics of some ancient edifice of unknown character. On the terrace in front of the chapel is a large Roman sarcophagus in marble. Around it are placed numerous Punic cinerary urns. In the grounds lie fragments of ancient buildings. Along the garden-walls are ranged Roman mosaics, inscriptions, and fragments of sculpture.
The Colonnade of the seminary is adorned with three colossal figures of Victory in high-relief, of the time of the proconsul Q. Aurelius Symmachus (373–5), one of the last champions of expiring paganism.—The Vestibule contains two sadly mutilated early-Christian reliefs, the Annunciation to the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi, from Damous el-Karita (p. [349]).—To the left, in the Salle de la Croisade, are Punic, Roman, and early-Christian inscriptions.—On the right is the—
Punic Room, containing the most valuable collection, almost exclusively from Punic rock-tombs (8th–2nd cent. B.C.), unrivalled except in the museum of Iviza. In the 1st Case in the middle of the room are Egyptian scarabs and amulets, trinkets (some Egyptian), and weights. 2nd Case: lamps and vases in clay, gold trinkets, beautiful Greek ivory carving (swan bearing a goddess), an Etruscan inscription (the only one yet found in Africa), Egyptian signet-rings, etc. 3rd Case: necklaces composed of amulets, glass amulets with faces of iridescent glass, gold signet-rings with engraved figures, fragments of painted ostrich-eggs, toilet articles in lead, Cupid in terracotta resembling the Tanagra figurines, a Greek work. 4th Case: bronze mirrors and ‘little axes’ or razors, probably amulets.—In the wall-presses, on the left of the entrance, Punic vases and terracotta masks, iron and bronze weapons. By the left side-wall are statuettes in clay in the Egyptian and Cyprian style, Corinthian and Attic vases, an Etruscan vase (toilet scene), two bronze jugs with fine figures as handles. By the back-wall are terracottas.—At the end of the right side-wall, in the window-niche, cinerary urn of the priest Baalchelek, also that of another priest with a beautiful relief of the deceased. By the last window but one, on the right side, are five cinerary urns; in front of them stands a sarcophagus with two skeletons. Then, at the end of the room, are four anthropoid *Sarcophagi in the Greek style (end of 4th cent. B.C.); two bearded priests in the attitude of prayer (one of them a cast); a priestess, with remarkably well-preserved painting, holding a dove and a situla.
Lastly we enter the Roman-Christian Room from the garden. By the end-wall on the left are early-Christian mosaics and lamps. By the back-wall, Roman mosaics (incl. Autumn and Winter); marble sculptures (Ceres, bust of Apollo, etc.). By the right end-wall are Roman terracottas, *Lamps with figure-compositions, and three reliefs in stucco from the tomb of a lady of rank. By the entrance-wall, Roman and Byzantine weights.—The 1st Case in the middle of the room contains early-Christian relics from the abbey-hill (p. [349]), mostly of the Vandal period. 2nd Case: a bronze lamp and the clay statuette of an organ-player (upper part broken off). 3rd Case: Roman bronzes and glasses; rolls of lead inscribed with curses, from the burial-ground of the Officiales (p. [348]); Byzantine and mediæval coins. 4th Case: coins of the Phœnician down to the Byzantine periods.
The Cathedral (Primatiale de St. Cyprien et de St. Louis), a basilica with nave and two aisles, built in 1884–90 by Abbé Pougnet, in the Byzantine-Moorish style, contains (in the choir) the archiepiscopal throne and the tomb of Card. Lavigerie (p. [346]). Over the high-altar is the valuable reliquary of St. Louis, executed by Armand Caillat, a goldsmith of Lyons. Adm. from 5 to 11.15 and 12.30 to 5.30 (in summer 6.45).
The limestone blocks on the S.W. side of the cathedral, near the small eucalyptus grove, are remains of the stylobate of a Roman Temple. From the brow of the hill we obtain a good survey of the site of the ancient naval harbour (p. [345]) and of the Roman circus (see below). The view of Lake Bahira is charming at sunset.
Between the brow of the hill and the road descending to Douar ech-Chott (p. [344]) Père Delattre’s excavations have brought to light a number of buildings a thousand years apart in date. Above, on the margin of the hill, is an interesting Punic Necropolis with rock-tombs; lower down are remains of the Town Walls, hastily restored under Theodosius II. (p. [541]) in 424, and traces of the Roman Road leading to the harbour; then Punic tombs again, and below them the foundations of a Byzantine Dwelling House (a room here contains early-Moorish tombs).
Below the S. angle of the castle-hill we come upon ancient fortifications. Farther down is a wall or buttress composed of thousands of early-Roman earthenware amphoræ; also a rock-hewn Chapel (key at the Seminary) with remains of wall-paintings (saint bestowing a blessing) in the style of the catacomb frescoes.