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Menzel Bourguiba منزل بورقيبة Ferryville | |
|---|---|
Town | |
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  Menzel Bourguiba Location in Tunisia | |
| Coordinates:37°9′N9°47′E / 37.150°N 9.783°E /37.150; 9.783 | |
| Country |  Tunisia |
| Governorate | Bizerte Governorate |
| Population (2022) | |
• Total | 58,800 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
Menzel Bourguiba (Arabic:منزل بورقيبة,romanized: Manzil Būrgībah,lit. 'House of Bourguiba'), formerly known asFerryville, is a town located in the extreme north ofTunisia, about 60 kilometres (37 mi) fromTunis, in theBizerte Governorate.
The town's name translates as "House of Bourguiba", as it was named after the first president of independentTunisia,Habib Bourguiba, in 1956. During theFrench protectorate of Tunisia (1881–1956), Menzel Bourguiba was namedFerryville, referring to contemporary French ministerJules Ferry and was nicknamed"Petit Paris" (Translated "Little Paris") by its inhabitants of French origin. In addition, it housed theFrench Navy′sSidi-Abdallah Arsenal, which was only handed over to the Tunisian authorities in 1962.
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The town of Menzel Bourguiba is located about 60 kilometres (37 mi) north ofTunis and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south ofBizerte, capital of thegovernorate of the same name. It is located in the south-west of theLac de Bizerte (lake of bizerte), on the narrow strip of land which passes between the lakes of Bizerte andIchkeul.
An expressway connects the city to the RN8 and the A4 motorway linking Bizerte to Tunis. From Bizerte, the city is accessible from the RN11 which places it halfway between Bizerte andMateur. In addition, the city is connected to the SNCFT railway network.
Its suburbs consist mainly of the outlying town ofTinja to the west and theEnnejah district a little further[quantify] south. The Guengla beach, near which several colonial-style houses are still standing. The hills of Sidi Yahya and Sidi Abdallah are highly visible from the city.
In 1897, the French government took the decision to build an arsenal on a strategic site between lakes Ichkeul and Bizerte. As the North African Real Estate Company owned a large part of the land nearby, it began to draw up plans for the town to which the company's largest shareholder, Joseph Décoret, wished to give his name.
His untimely death, even before the town was erected as a municipality, allowed the general resident to impose the nameFerryville in honour of the French ministerJules Ferry, the inspirer of theFrench protectorate of Tunisia.
During theSecond World War, the city was relatively spared, unlike the nearby town ofBizerte, 77% of whose European quarter was destroyed by American bombing in late 1942 and early 1943. However, from August 1944 to March 1945, the city suffered a plague epidemic fromMorocco and thenAlgeria, which was contained by the French naval medical services. The official toll of the epidemic was 37 hospitalized patients, ten of whom died. The cases were distributed among the population as follows: 25 Europeans and 12 Tunisians of Tunisian origin. The victims occupy a wide variety of positions in society: 18 are foreigners in the navy (eight deaths) and eight work in the arsenal (two deaths), including two naval executives.
In 1952, the city was the scene of clashes marking the uprising of Tunisia for its accession to independence. Thus, on 17 January, one day before the arrest of Habib Bourguiba and the holding of the clandestine Neo-Destour congress proclaiming armed struggle, demonstrations broke out and were harshly repressed: the toll was three dead and around fifty wounded. A local odonym, "Avenue du 17-Janvier 1952", recalls this event.
The name of the town, which means "house of Bourguiba" in Arabic, was given to it in 1956 by Bourguiba himself, who had just gained independence from Tunisia and the following year became the first President of the Republic. By giving this name to Ferryville, he thus underlines the return of the country's sovereignty.
However, the Sidi-Abdallah arsenal was not evacuated by the French navy until 1 July 1962. Nowadays, the arsenal has become a shipyard for the repair and maintenance of merchant ships. It also contains small manufacturing industries.
Menzel Bourguiba is an important town for economic reasons. Its economy is based mainly aroundmetallurgy. It was founded as a naval installation under French rule, because of its strategic location between two lakes: The inlandIchkeul Lake on the west, andBizerte Lake on the east, which connects to theMediterranean Sea by theBizerte canal.
Its most important economic activity was the ailing state-ownedshipyard. The yard has seen its workforce decline, after the high level of activity in the 1970s and 1980s, when Tunisia had a larger merchant fleet and when theSoviet Union used Menzel Bourguiba to drydock its ships. At that time, the yard employed over 1,300 people. It was bought by the French ship repair company,Compagnie Marseille Réparation in 2004 and has been renamed to CMR Tunisia Ship Repairs.[1]
| Climate data for Menzel Bourguiba (1981–2010, extremes 1901–2017) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 27.0 (80.6) | 27.2 (81.0) | 33.5 (92.3) | 34.2 (93.6) | 40.4 (104.7) | 46.0 (114.8) | 46.6 (115.9) | 48.0 (118.4) | 45.0 (113.0) | 40.5 (104.9) | 34.0 (93.2) | 27.2 (81.0) | 48.0 (118.4) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 15.6 (60.1) | 16.0 (60.8) | 18.0 (64.4) | 20.4 (68.7) | 25.0 (77.0) | 29.1 (84.4) | 32.3 (90.1) | 32.8 (91.0) | 29.6 (85.3) | 25.8 (78.4) | 20.5 (68.9) | 16.8 (62.2) | 23.5 (74.3) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 11.2 (52.2) | 11.3 (52.3) | 12.8 (55.0) | 15.1 (59.2) | 19.0 (66.2) | 23.1 (73.6) | 26.0 (78.8) | 26.6 (79.9) | 23.9 (75.0) | 20.4 (68.7) | 15.7 (60.3) | 12.5 (54.5) | 18.1 (64.6) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 7.0 (44.6) | 6.9 (44.4) | 8.1 (46.6) | 10.1 (50.2) | 13.5 (56.3) | 17.2 (63.0) | 20.1 (68.2) | 21.0 (69.8) | 19.0 (66.2) | 15.8 (60.4) | 11.4 (52.5) | 8.4 (47.1) | 13.2 (55.8) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −4.2 (24.4) | −1.4 (29.5) | −0.4 (31.3) | 1.0 (33.8) | 3.1 (37.6) | 8.0 (46.4) | 8.0 (46.4) | 10.0 (50.0) | 8.9 (48.0) | 4.9 (40.8) | 0.0 (32.0) | −0.5 (31.1) | −4.2 (24.4) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 88.8 (3.50) | 73.9 (2.91) | 57.6 (2.27) | 50.6 (1.99) | 23.2 (0.91) | 10.6 (0.42) | 2.2 (0.09) | 6.8 (0.27) | 44.3 (1.74) | 61.3 (2.41) | 93.4 (3.68) | 115.2 (4.54) | 627.9 (24.73) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 11.3 | 10.3 | 9.6 | 6.5 | 3.9 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 4.0 | 7.8 | 9.5 | 11.4 | 77.6 |
| Averagerelative humidity (%) | 83 | 80 | 78 | 78 | 75 | 70 | 68 | 69 | 75 | 78 | 83 | 83 | 77 |
| Mean monthlysunshine hours | 142.6 | 163.9 | 217.0 | 237.0 | 303.8 | 330.0 | 384.4 | 356.5 | 267.0 | 207.7 | 153.0 | 133.3 | 2,896.2 |
| Mean dailysunshine hours | 4.6 | 5.8 | 7.0 | 7.9 | 9.8 | 11.0 | 12.4 | 11.5 | 8.9 | 6.7 | 5.1 | 4.3 | 7.9 |
| Source 1: Institut National de la Météorologie (precipitation days 1961–1990 and extremes 1950–2017)[2][3][4][note 1] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2:Deutscher Wetterdienst (extremes 1901–1992)[6] Arab Meteorology Book (humidity and sun)[7] | |||||||||||||
Menzel Bourguiba istwinned with:
|
| Period | Mayor(s) |
|---|---|
| 1958–1962 | Ahmed Ben Hémida |
| 1962–1980 | Taïeb Tekaia |
| 1980–1990 | Mohamed Dridi |
| 1990–1995 | Kamel Dhaouadi |
| 1995–2000 | Fethi Sâafi |
| 2000–2005 | Fethi M'rabet |
| 2005–2010 | Sadok Chalghoumi |
| 2010–2011 | Jamel Eddine El Batti |
| 2011–2018 | Mohamed Arbi Mimouni |
| 2018–2021 | Slaheddine Jebari |
| 2021–Present | Salim Hraga |
| International | |
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| National | |
