El Battan stud farm in the Manouba governorate, known as El Kechla (the old barracks), is to be restored and integrated into a tourist and cultural circuit as part of the ‘Ciné Trip Tunisia’ film route initiative, stressed Mohamed Moez Belhassine, Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, at the opening of the El Battan chechia festival on Saturday.
Launched by the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the aim of this initiative is to publicise the filming locations of famous international films and thus promote film tourism.
Managed by the Fondation Nationale d’Amélioration de la Race Chevaline (FNARC), the stud farm is housed in a 17th-century beylical palace created by Othman Dey, the military commander of Tunis, during the Ottoman era. It was later converted into military barracks under the French protectorate.
In 1885, the stables came under the authority of the Ministry of Agriculture, and in 1949 became a horse-breeding centre.
TunisianMonitorOnline
