flag on the castle. Although older sources placed Thabraca within the
Roman province of
Numidia, recent ones agree on placing it in the Roman province of
Africa, known also as
Africa Proconsularis. The Genoese were in the service of Spain during 1553 at the request of
Emperor Charles V who was interested in coral fishing. The Lomellini were part of the circle of
Andrea Doria, Doge of Genoa, and were related to the
Grimaldi family. The grant was possibly due to a secret ransom for the release of the pirate Turkish
Dragut, captured in
Girolata in 1540 by Giannettino Doria, nephew of Andrea Doria. The Lomellini colonized Tabarca with a group of inhabitants of
Pegli, near Genoa, where they had various properties and a huge palace. The community of Pegliesi lived in Tabarka for several centuries. In 1738 due to the exhaustion of the coral reefs and the deterioration of relations with the Arab population a large group of "Tabarkini" moved to
San Pietro Island off Sardinia, then uninhabited, where they founded a new town of
Carloforte. The transfer was made possible thanks to the King of Sardinia,
Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia who wanted to colonize those of his lands which were not yet inhabited. The name of Carloforte was chosen in honor of the sovereign. Another group of Tabarkini was resettled in the town of
Calasetta on the adjacent Island of
Sant'Antioco, whose population still speaks a variant of
Genoese dialect originating from Tabarka. Others were moved to the Spanish island of
New Tabarca. In 1741 or 1742, the Genoese fortress surrendered to the (nominally Ottoman but essentially autonomous)
Bey of Tunis. At Tabarka, the ruins consists of a pit once used as a church and some fragments of walls which belonged to Christian buildings. There were also two Ottoman Turkish fortresses, one of which has been repaired. A French
expedition was dispatched to capture Tabarka but failed. Under French colonial rule it was annexed to the civil district of
Souk el-Arba, now in the Tunisian governorate of
Jendouba, and a rather important fishing centre.
Tabarka Jazz Festival was established in 1973. ==Ecclesiastical history==