Léon Roches, French consul general in Tunis from 1855 to 1863, was granted the palatial complex of in
La Marsa as his residence in 1857. Following an agreement with
Bey Muhammad VI al-Habib in December 1859, he directed the construction of a large consulate building on the western approach to the
Medina of Tunis, designed by engineer Philippe Caillat and inaugurated on . At the time, there were few buildings outside of the old city's walls. The new building replaced the older French consulate building inside the Medina, which as of 2017 was still extant albeit in disrepair. Following the
French conquest of Tunisia in 1881, the complex became the seat of the
resident-general, the de facto governor of the
French protectorate of Tunisia. In the 1890s, the Catholic
Cathedral of Saint Vincent de Paul was built across the thoroughfare (now
Avenue Habib Bourguiba) from the Residency. In 1904, the two pavilions flanking the entrance were rebuilt on a larger scale, after which the compound's layout has remained largely unchanged. Following
Tunisian independence in 1956, it was repurposed as the
Chancery of the newly established embassy. The square in front of the building, formerly known as the , was promptly renamed ("Independence Square"). ==See also==