Guisanbourg (also Guizanbourg) is an uninhabited town in the commune of

Régina Régina is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. With a land area of , it is the second-largest commune of France. The town is named after the first merchant who settled in the area. Ov ...

, north-east

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

, situated on the

Approuague river The Approuague river (or Apuruaque in Tupi) is a major river in French Guiana. It is long. It runs north from the Tumuk Humak Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, almost parallel with the Oyapock, with its mouth by the Pointe Béhague cape. The A ...

History

In the 1820s

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...

plantations were established along the Approugue. In April 1832, the town of Approuague was founded at the site as the administrative centre of the commune, because

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster a ...

s could harbour there. In April 1834, the town was renamed Guisanbourg after

Jean Samuel Guisan Jean Samuel Guisan (29 March 1740 – 29 June 1801) was a Swiss engineer and civil servant known for his poldering work in the marshes near Kaw in French Guiana. Biography Guisan was born in Avenches, Switzerland. In 1769, he moved to Suriname to ...

who

polder A polder () is a low-lying tract of land that forms an artificial hydrological entity, enclosed by embankments known as dikes. The three types of polder are: # Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed # Flood plains s ...

ed the region. On 10 August 1848,

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

was abolished, and many of the former slaves left the region for

Cayenne Cayenne (; ; gcr, Kayenn) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Oc ...

. 1,200 contract workers were hired as replacement mainly from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. In July 1855, the

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

Paoline entered the town with

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

. Soon after, the town started to empty to villages further upstream.

, a new town started to develop. In January 1936, Guisanbourg lost its status as administrative centre of the commune to Régina. In 1977, there were only 15 citizens left. The town of Guisanbourg became a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

in the mid-1980s. The National Road 2 (RN2) from nearby Régina to St-Georges de l’Oyapock was completed in 2004. In 2008, the Zanmourette Association started to clean up the town which had become lost in the

rain forest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainforest ...

References

External links

Photos of Guisanbourg (2005)
Former populated places in French Guiana Régina Villages in French Guiana {{FrenchGuiana-geo-stub