Bizerta

“We find ourselves at the narrowest point, and, yet, the water is just as still as in other places in the inner lagoon; only the dolphins playing remind us of the sea. Two points advance, one in front of the other: that’s where the fish tank is, with the noble Djebel Leckeul line on the horizon.

The right point is called Raz el Ouzir. Just next to the shore is a gallery where they salt the sardines which are caught in large numbers by net. It’s interesting to come to this place on days when the capture has been good. Thousands of large and fat gilt-head sea breams can be seen between flathead mullets ( scievoli).

The two Alegro brothers live next door. Born in Tunis but of Spanish descent, they have fish shops where 70 people currently work.

Strolling atop the tank made of wooden planks and built on steel pillars and rails, you can see thousands of fishes’ heads, avid for freedom, trying to find escape through the iron nets which make up their prison.”

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria, Bizerte, J. Rothschild, Paris, 1900 (Prague, 1897)