Sidi Bou Saïd: Myths and Truths About the Blue and White

Few places in Tunisia have gathered as many stories as Sidi Bou Saïd. Its white walls and blue shutters are photographed endlessly, and often misunderstood.

Let’s clear the confusion.

Myth 1 : The French invented the blue and white.

Truth:

These colors existed long before any decree was ever written.

Families in Sidi Bou Saïd used lime to cool their homes and blue paint to resist sun and salt.

By the time of the French Protectorate, the village already looked this way.

In 1915, residents asked the authorities to protect it.

A decree was published in the Journal Officiel Tunisien (28 August 1915, p. 361) — one of Tunisia’s first heritage laws — formalising what was already there.

Myth 2 : Baron d’Erlanger created the look.

Truth:

Rodolphe d’Erlanger, a painter and musicologist who built his palace Ennejma Ezzahra in Sidi Bou Saïd, loved the village and supported its preservation.

But there’s no evidence he invented the color scheme or wrote the decree.

He helped promote a style that already belonged to the people.

Myth 3 : It was copied from Greece.

Truth:

In Greece, the blue-and-white style became widespread and standardized only in the 1930s, after a 1938 decree.

Sidi Bou Saïd had lived in these colors for generations. They came naturally from climate and craft.

Myth 4 : Blue keeps insects away.

Truth:

That’s folklore. People say it out of habit, but there’s no scientific proof.

The reason was practical and visual: blue softened light and lasted against sea air.

Myth 5 : All doors must be the same shade.

Truth:

There was never a single official shade.

Each craftsman mixed his own pigment; some cobalt, some turquoise.

The unity comes from harmony, not exact repetition.

The Real Story

People lived like this.

They built, painted, and cared for their homes in the same quiet logic that shaped the coast.

When they feared losing it, they asked for protection, and the 1915 decree made it official.

It was a Tunisian decision, rooted in local life.

Sources

• Décret du 6 août 1915 relatif à la protection des constructions de Sidi Bou Saïd, Journal Officiel Tunisien, 28 août 1915, p. 361.

• Myriam Bacha, “La construction patrimoniale tunisienne à travers la législation et le Journal Officiel (1881–2003).” (OpenEdition, 2020).

• Ekistics, “Sidi Bou Saïd Village, Tunisia.”

• Aramco World, “A Study in Blue and White.”

• UNESCO Tentative List, “Village de Sidi Bou Saïd.”

FAQ

Who created the blue-and-white style of Sidi Bou Saïd?

Local families had already used these colors before 1915. The decree only protected what existed.

Did Baron d’Erlanger invent the look?

No. He admired and promoted it, but it was a Tunisian tradition that predated him.

Was the color scheme copied from Greece?

No. Greece standardized its blue-and-white houses decades later, in the 1930s.

Is it true blue keeps insects away?

That’s a local saying without scientific basis. The choice was mainly for light and durability.

Are all doors the same shade of blue?

No. Craftsmen mixed their own tones. The unity is in balance, not uniformity.

Continue exploring Tunisia’s architecture in Sidi Bou Saïd: The Quiet Blue-and-White Hill Over the Mediterranean or revisit its ancient layers in Carthage: Layers of a Lost Empire.