Wipped off the map by the volcanic eruption most fatal to date, Saint-Pierre never recovered his last power. Gradually rebuilt and cleared its ashes, the old economic capital of the French West Indies is today, a modest commune of less than 5000 inhabitants. The life runs out there peacefully, in the medium of pilot vestiges at the same time, of the richness disappeared from "Small Paris of the Antilles", and the violence of the catastrophe.
It is in Saint-Pierre that the first colonists are established in 1635. The city will be used as starting point with the conquest of the island. Quickly, it extends. The trade of the cane sugar is flourishing, that of african slaves too. Its free port attracts ships and rich traders of all the nations. The stopover is known of all the Caribbean one for its merry animation.
Nothing in the past of Mount-Pelé let predict such a dramatic eruption. Few volcanic phenomena observed before, did not convince the inhabitants of the importance of the danger. However, May 8, 1902, the crater explodes. In a few seconds, a volcanic cloud shaves any trace of life on 60km2. 30000 people perish.
Today, Saint-Pierre offers to the visitors walks full with charm and emotion. The ruins of the districts of the center and the fort with the frontages still upright of the commercial firms, the staircase of the theatre, the church, the colonial house and the street Monte-au-Ciel are worth a visit.
French Version