Sebastian Villa

A villa built by Romanian, millionaire, George Sebastian, is now a cultural center just outside Hammamet. The weather is cooler with some rain; red blooms are closed and hanging their heads in response to the change in temperature. Pink hisbicus still have their colorful visages open to the world as soon as the sun rises. Built on 35 acres (14 hectares) of Mediterranean shoreline, the Dar Sebastian is impressive and interesting. Frank Lloyd Wright said it was the most beautiful house he had ever seen. Many other influential and celebrity figures have visited the area (Paul Klee, Andre Gide). Winston Churchill wrote some of his memoirs there. E. Rommel made it his headquarters in 1943. After the war, Sebastian turned it over to the Tunisian government, which built an outdoor theater on the premises in 1964. Spacious gardens (orange trees, hibiscus, eucalyptus trees, prickly pear cacti, agave, with other indigenous and exotic trees) and accompanying villas set off the grounds.

Architect

What most interested me was a placard indicating the tomb of a person named Woodruff. It wasn’t easy to find his grave; but a worker in the gardens showed me around. I learned that Woodruff was the American architect who designed Sebastian’s sumptuous palace. His grave is behind the Café de la Lune, a terrace attached to the burial place of a marabout, (small white square building with a dome [kouba]), which overlooks the Gulf of Hammamet. Marabout mausoleums are common throughout Tunisia. This kouba was constructed by Sebastian; and Woodruff may have lived there. Sebastian and Woodruff used to drink tea and visit on the patio. Woodruff’s grave, a short distance behind the café, is unremarkable, a rectangle of bricks overgrown with grass. He spent his last days at Sebastian’s villa and died in Tunisia. An architect,* whose work was admired by the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, became so charmed by his new environment that he spent his last days in a house of his own design in Tunisia. Yet, his work, I suspect, is not well known in the United States. He chose to be buried in an almost unmarked grave in a faraway land. Perhaps, this befits a person who had the imagination and creativity to dream of, plan, and implement a project such as Dar Sebastian and leaves us with a pervading sense of mystery.

I was outside this evening so I heard the evening call to prayer. It's more melodius here, a soothing close to a winter's day. The pre-sunrise sky this morning was "awesome"-rose showing through blue-gray clouds over a true aquamarine sea below the horizon.

*If this information, provided by the gardener, is true. A sign in the center gives only his last name (Woodrof). I couldn't find anything about him on the Internet.