Visit Bizerte - Come to Tunisia

Bizerte is noted for its beautiful forests, beaches and scenery. The port of Bizerte is now being developed into a significant Mediterranean yachting marina that will open in December 2010. The super yacht section of the marina will be called Goga Super yacht Marina, and will have berths for yachts of up to 110m in length. It is expected that this will give a significant boost to the local economy as the yacht owners and also the hundreds of professional crew will become year-round consumers. The service industries supplying the yachts will gradually develop and bring additional employment.

Location

Bizerte sits on the north-east coast of Tunisia, 65 km north-west of Tunis, 136km north east of Tabarka. Direct trains travel from Tunis, or from Tabarka via Mateur.

History

Bizerte is known as the oldest and most European city in Tunisia. It was founded around 1000 BC by Phoenicians from Tyre. It is also known as the last town to remain under French control after the rest of the country won its independence from France.

Initially a small Phoenician harbour, the city came under the influence of Carthage after the defeat of Agathocles during the Punic Wars. The city was then occupied by the Romans, under the name of Hippo Diarrhytus or Zarrytus, was dismantled and moved to Utica.

Bizerte was successively conquered by the Arabs in 647 (who gave the city its current name), by the troops of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire in 1535, and then by the Turks in 1574. The city then became a corsair harbour and struggled against the French and the Venetians.
Under the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, France gained control of Bizerte and built a large naval harbour in the city.

In 1924, after the French government officially recognised the Soviet Union (USSR), the western military fleet of White Russia that had been kept in the port of Bizerte was returned to the Soviet government. The ships never moved from the port and finally were sold there as scrap metal.

Due to Bizerte's strategic location on the Mediterranean, France wanted to retain its naval base there and kept control of the city even after Tunisia gained its independence in 1956. After a long struggle, the French military finally left Bizerte on 15 October 1963.