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| HISTORY
OF SAINT-LOUIS |
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Former capital city of the colony
"Senegal", third largest town in
the country and second sea-port, situated
270 km north of Dakar
and roughly 10 km south of the Mauritanian
border, the town was founded by French merchants
in 1638 and named Saint-Louis in 1659 as a
tribute to Louis
XIII, king of France.
The city was the first permanent French settlement
in Senegal because it offered good moorage
and defence facilities.
Very busy commercial centre - including slave
trade - Saint Louis had a population of 10,000
inhabitants at the end of the XVIIIth century
.
The English took possession of the city but
restored it to France in 1817.
The governor of that time, Colonel Schmalz,
was among the survivors after the shipwreck
of "La Méduse".
The development of Saint Louis in the XIXth
century was mostly due to the personality
of General
Faidherbe . The general campaigned for
the achievement of large-scale works such
as the Servatius bridge which links the island
to the districts of Guet-Ndar and Ndar-Toute,
also the Town Hall, and, in 1883 he inaugurated
the railroad Saint Louis-Dakar. For several
decades now, life has been at a stand-still,
so to speak ; the town seems to linger over
her former splendour.
The stroller will appreciate the beautiful
buildings of the colonial period. |
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