“Kheireddin-Pasha’s suite” is the prestige official lounge where the Masters of the House used to receive high ranking officials and guests: it is the heart of the palace. It is characterized by both its side-alcoves hosting queen-sized parade beds, framed by highly decorative golden front and rear pediments, displaying bunches of delicate wooden flowers, intermingled with patches of ancient mirrors. A team of talented and devoted young experts spared no time to repair and restore thoroughly those marvels of the past –their past anyway- with well preserved traditional instruments and thin golden-shits. This is the place to realize what and how Tunisian urban “art-de-vivre” has been, at its best, in eighteenth century, i.e. before French Revolution.
The floor is made of ancient marble tiles, as everywhere else in this Mansion, and the high walls are entirely covered with ancient white and green zellijs (local pronunciation “Zliz”), the pattern of which looks surprisingly modern. Hand-carved plaster stuccoes have been created to replace poorly repaired ruined arch. The interior and exterior marble frames of the doors and windows have been sculpted with patterns (rosettes, crescents and clouds). They are original and have been restored on the site.
Furniture is traditional for that type of lounge: in the middle sitting-room, Tunisian benches and a rare pedestal French table. As for the remaining: a Victorian bedside cabinet and two high oriental “Guéridons” from Syria, supporting a pair of Islamic engraved copper “Ibriqs and basins”.
All the seats have been reupholstered by excellent artisans of the Medina, with embroidered or embossed silk pieces, also manufactured in the labyrinth of workshops back lanes (“The Wikalas”) surrounding the Palais.
The walls of the suite were in such good a condition that most of the ancient faiences were kept in place. The colors of doors and shutters have been restituted according to the aesthetics of Tunisian eighteenth century, after recreating antique paints out of pigments of mahogany (red), curcuma (yellow) and walnut (black).
The long Asian kilim in the center of the room matches a pair of checkers style “Khotan” (Chinese Turkestan carpets) at the foot of the beds; the central “kbou” carpet is a Persian “Saruk” from Sultanabad. Obviously, in this jewel of Tunisian architecture and taste, those rare pieces of oriental rugs have just reached the ideal place for which they have been woven, and where they are better highlighted than anywhere else before.
Like other apartments of the palace, the “Kheireddin-Pasha’s suite” has a WIFI relay, a fixed line with the reception and a very silent air conditioning system based on water circulation. It is equipped with a smoke detector to the standards of Tunisian civil Protection.

This suite was named after the most distinguished political personality of Tunisia in nineteenth century: Kheireddin-Pasha (1822-1890) was first the Grand Vizier of Tunisia, before being appointed Grand Vizier (“Sadr-Azam”) of the Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. He spent four years in France to get acquainted with modernization of finances, to which he devoted a reference book.