Goulette
Goulette (rear RTL حلقالوادي) is a city Tunisia of 28.407 inhabitants (Recensement of 2004) which accommodates the main thing port of Tunis, Capitale of the country, located at 10 kilometers in south-west.
Etymology
As opposed to what one could think, the name of the city has nothing to do with its Italian homonym ( goletta means “Goélette”) but comes from the Arab name Halq Al-Wādī (“throat of the river”) which indicates throttling - a broad channel 28 meters - thanks to which it Lac of Tunis communicates with the Golfe of Tunis and at the edges of which the city rises. This position near a Rade makes of Goulette the main port of the littoral since the destruction of the harbor installations of Carthage at the beginning of the Arab conquest. It is roads which are poorly sheltered winds of Hiver but there is not the different one in the gulf which can become the wearing of Tunis. Also the sovereigns of the capital endeavoured to protect it from the possible incursions from enemies.
History
Ordering the access to the Tunis Lake, Goulette plays during centuries an important military part. Occupied by the Turks, it is conquered in 1535 by the army of Charles Quint at the time of the Prise of Tunis. The fortress of Carraca, which always exists, is built by the Spanish then increased by the Turks when, in 1574, they take again the city. The population goulettoise is, at the beginning, made up exclusively of Turks and Moors. But the city develops starting from the middle of the 18th century as a district, by extension, of the capital following the arrival, initially modest, of immigrants coming from Malta and Sicily (in particular of the provinces of Palermo, Trapani and Agrigente) attracted by the prospects for work related to the maritime activities and harbor. Starting from 1868, year of the signature of the treaty tuniso-Italian of Goulette which encourages immigration in Tunisia, the arrival of the Italians is done increasingly massive until assuming the range of authentic waves of immigration which change the aspect of the city. Indeed, during these years, the the United States are still a goal too difficult to rejoin for the Sicilians and other Malteses with the research of fortune. This is why the migratory flux is folded back on close Tunisia. Very large majority of these colonists - who are Journalier S, minor craftsmen, and fishing - arrives with Goulette in a situation of substantial misery.
However, in only a few decades, the Italians belong themselves to this indigence and become majority with the center the city, giving life to the district of Small Sicily (not to be confused with the homonymous district of Tunis).
Meanwhile a chamber of commerce (1884) is founded, Banca Siciliana, the daily newspaper Unione and other organizations cultural and of assistance dedicated to the Italians (Théâtre S, Cinéma S, school S and hospital). The newcomers live thus peacefully at the sides of the indigenous population. In addition, the two communities mix partly via Mariage S mixed. In this context of animated cosmopolitanism, the cultural interactions are frequent, as well at the vestimentary or traditional level as in religious solemnity. This interbreeding is immortalisé besides in the film a summer in Goulette of Férid Boughedir.
If the Italians of Tunisia are already nearly 25.000 in 1870, they are 89.216 at the time of the census of 1926, among which a part resident with Goulette. In addition, the city remains a long time a place of estivage for the modest families of the capital which arrive by small the steam train of the Italian company Rubattino. The 1908, actuation, electric railroad of TGM, the construction of wharves for the unloading of fuels and the loading of the Minerai S give a new rise to the small port. In 1905, the Compagnie of the trams of Tunis obtains, like additional Concession TGM, the authorization to build a Powerplant with Goulette as well as the distribution of the electricity in the northern suburbs of Tunis. Several times modified and very damaged by the Bombardment S of the Countryside of Tunisia (1942 - 1943), the power station ensures, in 1955, 86% of the electrical production of Tunisia.
In 1964, when the president Habib Bourguiba orders the seizure of the goods had by foreigners, the latter take the way of the exile. The Italians of Goulette, having only French documents, have of another choice only to seek a new life in France where it will be added to the Pieds-Noirs coming from Algérie.
The few vestiges of the European past of Goulette are the church Saint-Augustin and Saint-Faithful, some houses carrying the inscription liberty and some sentences in Dialecte Sicilien remained in the memory of the most former Tunisians. It remains to maintain a bond with the native soil of of exiled much, It Corriere di Tunisi , periodical born in 1956 and diffused overseas near the Diaspora of Goulette. Among most famous of them appears the actress Claudia Cardinale, who takes the road of success after having her election in 1957 like most beautiful Italian of Tunis, or the actor Michel Boujenah.
In the beginning commercial port , fishing, of pleasure and Tourism, it remains to him today only the functions of port and fishing port for the ships of travellers. It is indeed the port of Radès which takes from now on charges the traffic with it with the ships of goods. Goulette remains famous for its Restaurant S of Poisson S and its long beach, which makes a favorite destination of Tunisois of it.
Sports
Goulette is attached to the general sports club of the Olympic Star Goulette Kram whose section of Basket-ball is based in the city.
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