Monuments to visit French Guiana

This is the mythical place in Saint-Laurent where all convicts were unloaded on arrival from mainland France. After a medical examination, they were assigned to the various penitentiary centers in French Guiana. At the entrance to the camp, while waiting for the tour, you can enjoy a permanent photo exhibition retracing the history of the penal colony. Then, the guide, master of the keys, opens the doors to another world, and visitors are literally transported into this disturbing place. The most courageous will imagine themselves in the shoes of famous prisoners such as Papillon, Seznec or Dreyfus. It's a moving place, and the setting for Yves Boisset's L'Affaire Seznec (1993).

The beginnings. In 1644 - the year of Messire Charles Poncet's arrival in Cayenne - a few French survivors of a small colony established a year earlier were living on the banks of the Maroni. A first exploration of the river took place in 1820-1821, under the government of Baron de Laussat. This was followed by the mission of Lieutenant Carpentier in 1852. In his report of August 30, 1855, Carpentier wrote: "As for the Maroni, which borders the French and Dutch Guianas, it is far superior to the other Guiana rivers. The Amazon and Orinoco, alone, in this northern part of South America, outweigh it."

The lieutenant is enchanted by this region, and speaks highly of Sieur Kappler's establishment: "A fact that is happening at this establishment must attract the utmost attention of those interested in the colonization of these beautiful lands. About forty families from Friesland have settled in Kappler and have been cultivating and working the woods for over three years. When I left French Guiana a year ago, not a single sick person had yet been counted among them, yet they worked during the hottest hours of the day, without taking any precautions against the heat of the sun"

In 1852, Commissioner General Sarda-Garriga was asked to look for a more salubrious location for a penitentiary in French Guiana. His choice fell on the right bank of the Maroni, on the site of an ancient Galibi village where the Boni had settled. Between July 1852 and April 1853, work began on the penitentiary. But the departure of Sarda-Garriga put an end to the project. His successor showed no interest in the project, and it was not until Governor Baudin that the work was completed. Baudin arrived in French Guiana in November 1855 and took office as governor in February 1856. During these three months, he toured the Maroni, Mana, Sinnamary and Kourou rivers. He visited Kappler's establishment. His August 1856 report concluded: "I found some Europeans perfectly fed, housed cleanly and comfortably, in as good air as is possible between the tropics, and yet they were not free from fever."
The work of colonization began in earnest in 1858, just after the inauguration of the penitentiary. Saint-Laurent then became an agricultural penitentiary. The idea of colonizing and developing the economy of French Guiana in the manner of the English in Australia became a reality. The Saint-Laurent region became a model and several logging camps were opened, including those at Saint-Jean and Sparouine. Proud of this success, the French government decided to settle the deportees and, in 1859, the first convoy of condemned women arrived in Saint-Laurent. All were volunteers, chosen from among those most likely to return to a normal life. Soon, however, the health situation in French Guiana's prisons became catastrophic, and Napoleon III decided to suspend them. In 1867, he opted for New Caledonia. For twenty years, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni would receive no more Europeans.
In 1859, a shortage of skilled workers led to the closure of four shipyards. Only Saint-Louis and Saint-Maurice remained open. In 1878, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni became the headquarters of the penitentiary administration, before becoming a "special penitentiary commune" in 1880.

The establishment of the penal colony, birth of a commune. The Saint-Laurent penitentiary was founded in 1857. As early as 1852, M. Mélinon, one of the establishment's first commanding officers, dreamed of turning the region into a large-scale agricultural and forestry operation. The locality, then called Pointe-Bonaparte, was home to a few natives. In 1852, with the help of some forty former slaves from the Mana region, Mélinon began clearing the forest, and later obtained the services of a few dozen transported slaves to swell the ranks of his workers. On an inspection tour, the Governor of French Guiana, Admiral Laurent Baudin, decided that the future town would take the name of its patron, Saint-Laurent, as well as that of the river on which it was built, Maroni. The penitentiary, which had already been in operation for a year, was inaugurated a few years later, on February 21, 1858. In the same year, all the prison administration departments, offices, hotels for senior staff, houses for junior staff and guards, and a twelve-building hospital were installed.

On March 16, 1880, a decree made Saint-Laurent an autonomous commune. With this decree, the President of the Republic, Jules Grévy, decided to organize the penitentiary commune of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. The decree was promulgated in Cayenne on May 7 by Governor Marie-Alfred-Armand Huart, and a director of the penitentiary administration was appointed to implement it. The Maroni penitentiary territory was renamed the "commune pénitentiaire du Maroni".

Punishments. The special maritime court in Saint-Laurent judges only convicts. It is presided over by a colonial infantry captain, whose assessors include the president of the Saint-Laurent civil court and a deputy head of the prison administration office. Another officer of the same rank is the Commissaire-Rapporteur, and a military supervisor acts as clerk. It is he who, when the time comes, reads the indictment to the accused. The meagre defense of those transported is provided by the wardens and by any free person willing to take on this role. The session room is the same as the courtroom of the disciplinary commission: on the day of the session, the door is open, as the hearings are public.

Caning: the number of strokes is set by decree in Paris. The whippers, who are also convicts, have no difficulty in making the torments even more terrible, depending on the mood of the guards. The convict Maynard writes of the whip Ambarrek: "When he struck the convicts bound to the fatal bench, he would rise on tiptoe so that the whip would fall from higher up, and suddenly curling up like a wild beast, he would lower the knotted whip and pull it horizontally. This Arab was the only corrector who tore off shreds of scarlet flesh with his seven-strap whip. His face twitched, his eyes sparkled. He showed all his teeth. He was dreadful The arrival of Jules Grévy as President of the Republic put an end to corporal punishment in the early 1880s. This was followed by the creation of a special maritime court and the institution of disciplinary camps.

The guillotine: when corporal punishment was abolished, the two machines were placed in a room in the Saint-Laurent disciplinary ward. Saint-Laurent's reputation as the capital of the penal colony was enhanced by the arrival of the two guillotines. Preparations for an execution began during the night. Executioners and assistant executioners erected the machine. They performed this task in silence, so as not to wake the occupants of the two rows of benches. At dawn, the group of "key-bearers" came to collect the condemned man. He was given a last meal, rum, a liter of wine and a pack of cigarettes. After this final snack, he was taken to the registry office, where he met the warden, the prosecutor, the doctor and the chaplain. He signed the register, and was then taken to the guillotine for execution. The guillotine used for death sentences was in permanent view of the other convicts. The executioner was a volunteer convict, who enjoyed a "privileged" position (bonuses, different meals).

Camp organization. The two prison administration buildings. On the right, the infirmary, and on the left, the accommodation for the warders and "key-holders", responsible for monitoring convicts and separated from other convicts for obvious security reasons. This building now houses a library.

Another complex includes the kitchen, the small chapel and the anthropometric room, where doctors were responsible for profiling convicts and assigning them tasks according to their skill level. A little further on, you can see the remains of a latrine, a basin, a well and a pump. A large mango tree stands proudly in the middle of the courtyard.

There were also double and single huts reserved for convicts sentenced to forced labor; the "Quartier des Relégués" (generally petty criminals convicted of theft), consisting of a collective building for up to 40 convicts and 19 individual cells; the "Quartier des Libérés", detained under the same conditions as the "relégués"; the "Tribunal Maritime Spécial", responsible for judging misdemeanors and felonies committed within the Camp's walls; the "Blockhaus", with a capacity of 40 convicts, but which sometimes housed twice that number in particularly harsh conditions: hindrance for the most recalcitrant, promiscuity, lack of air and light, and spartan sanitary conditions.

The rest of the buildings are divided up as follows: the Quartier Spécial, with 12 cells reserved for convicts sentenced to death (once the sentence had been passed, convicts waited up to 4 months for it to be carried out); the Premier Quartier, with some 20 cells for convicts bound for the Salvation Islands; the Deuxième, Troisième and Quatrième Quartier were reserved for "difficult" convicts, isolated from the others by gates. Finally, cell 47 is famous for having housed Henri Charrière, known as "Papillon".

The largest of the three islands in the archipelago, Île Royale is the starting point for a visit to the islands, with its many buildings. Once you've disembarked, you'll follow the coastal road to the left and take a paved path to the top of the island. It is in this vast clearing that most of the island's prison heritage is concentrated.

Inaugurated in 1855, the chapel was very active in the early years of the penal colony. The chapel walls are decorated with frescoes by the convict Lagrange. Leaving the church, you can see the sisters' house and the maternity ward where, for years, nuns devoted themselves to alleviating the suffering of convicts. As the military hospital testifies, Royale was an important health care center in French Guiana. Its healthier climate facilitated certain cures. The hospital was only open to prison staff, and convicts were only admitted in exceptional circumstances, if not to die.

Facing the hospital and the lighthouse next door is a heliport and a strange, modern building that stands out in such surroundings: the cinetheodolite. This ultra-sophisticated device can both locate the position of the launcher in flight with extreme precision, and collect images of Ariane, even at night, thanks to infrared. Leaving the helicopter pad on the right, the tour continues along a small path leading downhill. As the island is a fully protected reserve, you'll come across many animals that are not very shy. Below, you come to the children's cemetery, where the sons and daughters of the guards' families are buried. A few metres further on, on the left, is a sinister building: the morgue. Here, the bodies of dead convicts were stored before being thrown into the sea.

From themorgue, retrace your steps and follow the path overlooking the ocean, offering superb views of the coastline in places. Take time to admire the magnificent hibiscus and bougainvillea along the way. On the left, below, a few wood pigs seem perfectly at home in a vast pool of uninviting mud. At the end of the path, you come to the warders' quarters and cells. Overseers spent a minimum of two years on the islands, where they could stay with their families. A school was also set up here, enabling children to attend school.

The cell block, made up of three groups of buildings, is undoubtedly the most sinister part of the island. In these dungeons, some inmates served their sentences, while others, condemned to death, awaited execution. Leaving the cellblock, we discover a vast freshwater pit used to collect rainwater. This pit is in fact a former quarry from which raft rock, the main building material used on the island, was extracted.

Behind the pit is the Îles du Salut hotel-restaurant, housed in the former penitentiary buildings. A large covered terrace serves as an outdoor dining room, offering a splendid panorama of Devil's Island. In the large room that houses both the bar and the hotel reception, photos testify to the site's vocation for deep-sea fishing.

Behind the inn are the ruins of the semaphore. This system, similar to a visual telegraph, was used to communicate with the mainland. In Kourou, near the Hôtel des Roches, the Dreyfus Tower housed a similar device. A plaque on the semaphore wall commemorates the fact that Seznec was unjustly sentenced to 20 years' hard labor here. Nearby, slightly lower down, the director's house magnificently overlooks the Baie des Cocotiers. It houses a museum retracing the penitentiary history of the îles du Salut and serves as a visitor center. From the director's house, a path leads down to the ocean on the seaward side. You then reach Anse Legoff, the only part of the island where it's safe to swim: this is the "convicts' pool". In the days of the penal colony, the waters were infested with sharks, which did not hesitate to come close to the shore. To protect themselves from these predators, the convicts laid out huge rocks in a square plan, creating a seawater pool. The pool was used mainly for body care, which was the prisoners' only leisure activity.

Returning to the path around the island towards Devil's Island, a few dozen metres further on you come across the ferry. In the past, this small cableway was used to bring supplies to Devil's Island and to relieve the guards. From here, you can see the Dreyfus hut on Devil's Island. Following the same path, you finally reach the south jetty, which marks the entrance to Baie des Cocotiers and the end of the tour. Shortly before this, the path offers a magnificent panorama of Île Saint-Joseph, and is well worth a short stroll before setting off.

On Sunday mornings, the small market is the village's main attraction! Agricultural produce and handicrafts - such as these extremely fine embroideries in shimmering colors, as well as butterflies and tarantulas under glass - are displayed in a festival of colors. Nearby, women prepare salads, bamis, egg rolls and Asian soups, whose subtle scents waft through the air and excite, even whet the appetite!

The town's first market was called "l'Avancée". It was located at Grande-Savane (now Place des Palmistes), close to a post of soldiers known as the "advanced post". At the time, the inhabitants of the savannah were outside the town limits and, on their way to the market, were in fact on their way to the outpost.

At the same time, in the early ^18th century, plans for the city of Cayenne named the site of today's market "Place du Port", but it wasn't until 1842 that it was actually renamed Place du Marché. In 1888, a covered market was built here, flanked by public gardens. in 1907, the gardens were removed and new market halls were built, this time with a metal frame. The inauguration took place in 1910, making today's market an institution more than a century old!

Three times a week, the Cayenne market is a must for all producers. The stalls are filled with all the flavours, scents and colors of the country, and of the sub-region: Suriname, Brazil, Haiti... and Laos, thanks to the agricultural crops grown by the Hmongs of French Guiana. It's an opportunity to discover most of the local products: yams, bananas, sorossi, maripa, parépou, wassai and smoked chicken, black pudding, mango or soursop juice, as well as Chinese shrimp or chicken soup, or Brazilian specialties. A covered and open market, a must-see.

Between 1887 and 1938, more than 17,000 inmates landed in the relégation camp at Saint-Jean, 17 km from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. On May 27, 1885, the vote on the law on the relegation of repeat offenders led to the internment of repeat offenders in the colonies for life. A distinction was then made between two types of regime: individual relegation, applicable to convicts with the financial means to support themselves and who had demonstrated exemplary conduct during their imprisonment, which authorized the relegated to work and benefit from a concession while assigning them to the colony; and collective relegation, which forced the relegated to forced labor supervised by members of the prison administration, while eventually allowing them to benefit from individual relegation.

The distinction between relegated and transported prisoners meant that they could not be interned in the same camp, which is why it was decided to create specific camps for relegated prisoners. In 1885, on the site of a former transport camp, abandoned due to insalubrity, the then Ministry built a settlers' village. Settled in four camps, the "relégués" were granted agricultural concessions and could sell their produce on the market. However, the first wooden huts built on the camp by the relegués quickly deteriorated under the Guyanese climate. The camp's insalubrious conditions led to the flight of many relégués. The authorities decided to reinforce control and sanitation by building 20 permanent huts, giving the camp the appearance of a penitentiary. The great need for manpower to rebuild the camp put an end to the system of individual relegation. The vast majority of those relegated were then assigned to forced labor in conditions akin to transport camps. The relegation camp was abandoned in 1943, and the French army moved in in 1961.

The volunteer association Meki Wi Libi Na Wan offers guided tours of this exceptional site, located 17 km from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, as well as of the surrounding village. Passionate, responsive guides will explain how the village of Saint-Jean was created and became the capital of the Relégation. The organization of the camp, the regime of relegation and the daily life of these "undesirables" will no longer hold any secrets for you. To organize your visit with the association, visit the Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Tourist Office.

This fish market, located in Cayenne's old port, includes a wholesale area and a retail area with twelve well-equipped booths. A wide choice of all Guiana's fish from sea and river: snapper, atipas, acoupas, machoirans, not forgetting the famous shrimps. This is an opportunity to discover previously unknown species. There's also an ice-making plant. Don't forget to try the shrimp puddings, sold near the main entrance... divine!

This former residence of the prison director is now the property of the Conservatoire du Littoral. Now restored, it has been transformed into a historical and cultural information and visitor center. Inside, you're sure to come across one of the center's generally well-designed temporary exhibitions (in addition to the permanent one), as well as postcards, souvenirs and historical works... The chronological panels on the walls are highly instructive. A recommended stopover.

In 1643, Frenchman Poncet de Brétigny bought the rock overlooking the island of Cayenne from the Galibi Indians and named it Cépérou Hill, after a Galibi Indian chief. The man fortified the rock and built a village, which later became the colony's main town. Then the Frenchman was killed by the Indians, and the name Cépérou fell into oblivion. The fort, however, continued to be a unifying element in the lives of the Cayennais, with its resounding siren punctuating the hours and howling for ten days when the town burned down in 1888.

From Rémire-Montjoly, continue for a few kilometers along the Route des Plages. On your left, you'll see Fort Diamant, a military structure built in the ^18th century to guard the entrance to the Mahury estuary. In fact, the presence of this fort did nothing to prevent Dutch, English and Portuguese invasions. The site's main interest lies in its panorama, which extends as far as the Kaw marshes, where the mangrove forest is now under attack from the sea.

Created in 1987, this military camp covers an area of 150 ha, but exercises take place in an area of around 900 ha to train commanders for extreme missions, among other things. The camp regularly welcomes units from other countries.

At the end of Pointe des Roches, the Tour Dreyfus is one of the few remaining vestiges of the former Kourou penitentiary. Inaugurated in 1856 for agricultural production, this small tower facing the sea served as a semaphore during the penal colony era, and enabled communication with the other penitentiary center in the vicinity: that of the îles du Salut. The buildings have since been demolished to make way for the Hôtel des Roches, still in operation today. The tower was named after the most famous prisoner in French Guiana: Alfred Dreyfus.

A descendant of slaves, Guyanese politician and humanist, Félix Eboué had been colonial governor of Chad since July 1938 when he joined the Free French following General de Gaulle's Appeal of June 18, 1940. He was soon followed by the other countries of French Equatorial Africa, illustrating his patriotism as a hero of the Liberation. He was the "first resistance fighter from overseas France", but also the first black man to achieve such a high rank when he was appointed governor of Guadeloupe in 1936.

In 1883, Félix Eboué's father acquired a plot of land at 37 rue Richelieu. He had a single-storey colonial house built on the corner of the street, which today bears his son's name. As in most Creole houses of the period, the kitchen was located outside, in the courtyard. Acquired by the General Council of French Guiana in 1989, Félix Eboué's birthplace has since been transformed into a museum. It presents the history of the resistance fighter and his political career, from his posting to Oubangui-Chari to his governorship of Chad, via his years of interim governance in Guadeloupe. Explanatory panels and period artefacts provide an insight into the life of "this great African Frenchman" - as General de Gaulle described him on his death - the first black man to be buried in the Pantheon on May 20, 1949, at the same time as Victor Schoelcher, author of the decree abolishing slavery.

Prefecture of French Guiana since 1947, this U-shaped establishment was originally a Jesuit convent whose mission was to serve parishes, catechize slaves and, above all, convert Amerindians. Built between 1749 and 1752, the French ban on Jesuits in the colonies from 1762 forced them to abandon the site. Under the mandate of Victor Hugues, the building became the Hôtel des Gouverneurs and later housed the prefecture.

Installed in the center of Place Léopold-Héder, the fountain dates back to the first water supply from the Rorota mountains in Rémire. The work was carried out by convicts at the end of the ^19th century. Built in 1867, the fountain was dedicated to Governor Tardy de Montravel, who had succeeded in solving the town's water supply problem: as soon as he was appointed Governor of French Guiana on February 16, 1959, he set about improving the health of the entire Bagne territory.

The start-up of this industrial complex made headlines in the spring of 1994. The event was even reported in the mainland newspapers. From the outset, the project sparked confrontations between EDF managers on the one hand, and conservationists and residents of Sinnamary on the other. Construction lasted six years (1989-1995), mobilizing 1,000 people at a total cost of 442 million euros. The dam's impoundment resulted in the flooding of some 360 km² of Amazonian forest, home to an abundance of wildlife.

Environmentalists were therefore outraged by the situation. On the other hand, the inhabitants of Sinnamary have voiced their concern about the quality of the river water that feeds the town. The flooding of the forest has led to the decomposition of plant matter, resulting in a form of natural pollution for an indefinite period. In response, EDF set up a water oxygenation system to limit pollution, and organized a vast scientific operation to save as many animals as possible from drowning.

Today, the dam's production covers half of the coastline's consumption. Although tempers seem to have calmed somewhat since then, history will record that it was the lack of communication between the various players involved that triggered the clashes. Today, when the rainy and flooding seasons arrive, we cast a worried glance in the direction of the dam...

From 1643, as France organized expeditions to colonize French Guiana, the Jesuits settled on the îlet la Mère. Then, in 1776, the islet was used to house Cayenne's lepers, before becoming a farm and later a penitentiary, one of the first penal colonies in French Guiana: some fifteen buildings could accommodate up to 600 inmates. 20 years after its opening, however, an epidemic of yellow fever ravaged the island, which was abandoned. Much later, in 1981, the Institut Pasteur built an annex on the islet, at the same time as setting up a saimiri farm: these squirrel monkeys are used to collect serum for anti-malarial treatment. In 2001, the Institut Pasteur withdrew, and the islets were assigned to the Conservatoire du Littoral, which installed information and discovery panels to help visitors better understand the history of îlet la Mère.

Today, although the islet has returned to its wild state, it has preserved a number of building remains, most of which date back to the penal colony era. Along a 3.5 km (1h30) circuit, you'll see the remains of a hospital and a church, as well as the ruins of buildings where convicts were locked up. There's also a climb up to a former semaphore, at the foot of which a covered carbet has been set up for picnics in the shade (but not for overnight stays).