Kasserine


Kasserine is the capital city of the Kasserine Governorate, in west-central Tunisia. It is situated below Jebel ech Chambi, Tunisia's highest mountain. Its population is 76,243.

History

In classical antiquity it was a Roman colony, known as Cillium. Under Roman Emperor Vespasian or Titus, it was elevated to the rank of municipium, and under the Severan dynasty to that of colonia. Archaeological evidence remains on site: mausoleums, triumphal arches, thermae, a theatre and a Christian basilica.
In 1906, an attack by local bedouin on isolated settler farms near Kasserine, and the French civil administration offices during the Thala-Kasserine Disturbances was the first violent resistance to French authority under the protectorate.

Ecclesiastical history

Cillium was important enough in the Roman province of Byzacena to become a suffragan of the Metropolitan of Hadrumetum.
Cillium was represented at the Conference of Carthage between Catholic and Donatist bishops by the Catholic Tertiolus and the Donatist Donatus. In 484, Fortunatianus of Cillium was one of the Catholic bishops whom the Arian Vandal king Huneric summoned to Carthage and then exiled.

Titular see of Cillium

No longer a residential bishopric, Cillium is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.
Since its nominal restoration in 1925, the Latin titular bishopric has had the following incumbents, both of the lowest rank :
Kasserine is located in western central Tunisia. By road it is 200 kilometres west of Sfax, 246 kilometres south-west of Tunis, 166 kilometres south-west of Sousse.
Kasserine is divided into 11 districts:

Sports

Kasserine's most popular sport club is the AS Kasserine.

Notable people