Travel Guide Lastoursville

Founded in 1883 by Savorgnan de Brazza, the city was first called Madiville, which means "the city of oil", because of its vegetation composed mainly of oil palm trees. Savorgnan de Brazza became the first explorer to reach this part of the banks of the Ogooué River in 1877. The Adouma settled around Lastoursville surprised explorers with their skills as craftsmen and their remarkable commercial organization to trade with other ethnic groups for the oil they made.The name Lastoursville comes from a mining engineer, collaborator of Savorgnan de Brazza, Rigail de Lastours, who founded the Madiville substation, built opposite Île Fétiche. He died two years later and his grave still dominates the river on the heights of the city, which has since then been called Lastoursville.Several revolts broke out between 1896 and 1929, the most famous of which were those of Mayombo and then Wongo. The post was abandoned by the authorities, who transferred the area to the supervision of the SHO (Société du Haut-Ogooué) until 1909, when a post was relocated, not without difficulty.Today, Lastoursville has about 12,000 inhabitants and borders the Ogooué river, with its administrative districts overlooking the left bank of the river on the plateau. At the crossroads of the main roads of Ogooué-Lolo, Lastoursville has become the meeting place for foresters.