After important work of restoration of the palate of the Rose, the national military Museum was opened with the public, on June 24th, 1989, in accordance with the instructions of the Head of the State Président Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The museum presents the various times of the Tunisian military history to knowing the old times, the arabo-Islamic conquest, the time of the hafsides, then Othoman governors, as well as the periods of the dynasties mouradite and husseïnite until the French occupation in 1881.

It also presents the time of the resistance armed, since the French occupation in 1881 until the independence of the country, then the constitution of the Tunisian national army and the reinforcement of bases of sovereignty.

The Rose's palace, was built in 1793, on order of the bey husseïnite Hamouda Pasha, near large extremely, in the perimeter of the royal gardens whose creation goes up at the time hafside, in 1420.
The surface of the palate, with its parks, its gardens and its barracks, was then much wider than nowadays. The palate was in the middle of vast plantations of orange trees and various other fruit trees, which lent to the unit an aspect of a great beauty.
Interior architecture and external of the palate revêt a specifically Tunisian seal, which makes of it a historic building characteristic of Tunisia.
The palate was used as residence of summer to the sovereigns husseïnites. It was also used later to place the famous hosts of Tunisia

Like the queen Caroline de Brunschwig in 1816, and the admiral of the French fleet Lessègue, come in 1802 as ambassador extraordinary from the General Napoleon Bonaparte, first French Consul at the time. The palate also accepted the visit of Haydar Effendi, special correspondent of the Ottoman Empire.
Under the reign of the bey Ahmed Pasha (1837-1855), the Palate of the Rose became, of 1839 to 1842, a place of quartering for the body of Artillery, then for the body of the Cavalry, whose first commander was in 1842 the General Khéreddine Pasha. Palace became thereafter center reserved with instructors foreign which taught at the Military academy of Bardo, and among which one raises the names of the French Louis Campenom, which became later Minister for the war in his country, and of Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi hero of Italian independence.

In 1881, date of the introduction of French protectorate in Tunisia, the Palate of the Rose became the general headquarter of the occupying armies. Left with the abandonment, the building threatened to fall in ruins and failed to disappear completely, in particular at the time of the presence of the Italian troops in Tunisia, during the second world war. The explosion of the ammunition dump, during this period, did nothing but worsen the state of the monument. The palate became, since, the place of garrison of the 5th Artillery body, then 62ème body of the same weapon, until the end of November 1942. At the end of the 2nd world war, the building again sheltered the regiments of the foreign legion and Tabors Morrocans. In 1946, the 1st body of the 4th Zouave is established there until the independence of the country (in 1956). It was then the seat of the school of the non-commissioned officers, then the seat of the command of the unit of work and the administration, concerned with the direction of clothing and the subsistence.

After independence, the ministry for National defense undertook the restoration of the palate, which thus found all its initial splendor at the end long and important safeguard and renovation work. The direction of military engineering thus mobilized all its material and human resources to save destruction this important historic building.
At the conclusion of this work, the ministry for National defense decided to make monument the seat of the national military Museum, intended to preserve the memory of the military important facts of the history of Tunisia, which extend on thousands from years.

The various collections of the historical parts were distributed and exposed in the successive rooms of the palate according to the chronological order of the stages of the history of our country, since the oldest times until the advent of the formation of the first core of the Tunisian Army, on June 24th, 1956. The various stages were thus classified in four periods:

• Old times: who understand the Carthaginian period (to the Punic Wars), then the Roman period, then the period vandal as well as the Byzantine period.
  
• The time of the arabo-Islamic conquest, with the arrival of the first Arab armies and the foundation of Kairouan, as well as military forwardings which radiated starting from Tunisia towards the regions of the west and the other areas of the Mediterranean.
  
• The time of the hafsides, then Othoman governors, as be periods of the dynasties mouradite and husseïnite until the French occupation in 1881.
  
• The resistance armed, since the French occupation in 1881 until the independence of the country, then the constitution of the Tunisian national army and reinforcement of bases of sovereignty.