Saint-Pierre (, ; ;

Martinican Creole Antillean Creole (Antillean French Creole, Kreyol, Kwéyòl, Patois) is a French-based creole that is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary include elements of Carib, English, and African languages. Antillean Cre ...

: ) is a town and commune of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

's Caribbean

overseas department The overseas departments and regions of France (french: départements et régions d'outre-mer, ; ''DROM'') are departments of France that are outside metropolitan France, the European part of France. They have exactly the same status as mainlan ...

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island and an Overseas department and region, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of ...

, founded in 1635 by

Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc Pierre Belain, sieur d'Esnambuc (; 1585–1636) was a French trader and adventurer in the Caribbean, who established the first permanent French colony, Saint-Pierre, on the island of Martinique in 1635. Biography Youth Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc ...

. Before the total destruction of Saint-Pierre by a volcanic eruption in 1902, it was the most important city of Martinique culturally and economically, being known as "the Paris of the Caribbean". While

Fort-de-France Fort-de-France (, , ; gcf, label= Martinican Creole, Fodfwans) is a commune and the capital city of Martinique, an overseas department and region of France located in the Caribbean. It is also one of the major cities in the Caribbean. Hi ...

was the official administrative capital, Saint-Pierre was the cultural capital of Martinique. After the disaster, Fort-de-France grew in economic importance.

History

Saint-Pierre was founded in 1635 by

, a French trader and

adventurer An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme s ...

, as the first permanent French colony on the island of Martinique. The

Great Hurricane of 1780 The Great Hurricane of 1780 was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record. An estimated 22,000 people died throughout the Lesser Antilles when the storm passed through the islands from October 10 to October 16. Specifics on the hurricane's tra ...

produced a storm-surge of which "inundated the city, destroying all houses" and killed 9,000 people. La Catastrophe de la Martinique (Hess)-carte

Eruption of Mount Pelée

The town was again destroyed in 1902, when the

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

Mount Pelée Mount Pelée or Mont Pelée ( ; french: Montagne Pelée, ; gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Montann Pèlé, meaning "bald mountain" or "peeled mountain") is an active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas departme ...

erupted, killing 28,000 people. The entire population of the town, as well as people from neighboring villages who had taken refuge in the supposedly safe city, died, except for three people—a young girl, Havivra da Ifrile, a prisoner by the name of Louis-Auguste Cyparis (known also by various other names), who later toured the world with the

Barnum and Bailey Circus The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling) is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Ear ...

, and

Léon Compère-Léandre Léon Compère-Léandre (1874?–1936) was a Martiniquais shoemaker in Saint-Pierre on the French Caribbean island of Martinique when Mount Pelée erupted on May 8, 1902, and destroyed the town. He was one of only 2 (arguably 3) known survivors. ...

, who lived at the edge of the city. Legend has it that the town's doom was forecast by loud groaning noises from within the volcano, but the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as ...

of the town had it blocked off to prevent people from leaving during an

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

. This story appears to have originated with one of the island's newspapers, published by a political opponent of the governor. Actually, there was considerable eruptive activity in the two weeks prior to the fatal blast, but since the phenomenon of the

pyroclastic flow A pyroclastic flow (also known as a pyroclastic density current or a pyroclastic cloud) is a fast-moving current of hot gas and volcanic matter (collectively known as tephra) that flows along the ground away from a volcano at average speeds of b ...

(french: nuée ardente) was not yet understood, the danger was perceived to be from

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock ( magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or ...

flows, which, it was believed, would be stopped by two valleys between the volcano and the city. Saint-Pierre, Martinique (seen from the harbor - 2005-06-15)

Saint-Pierre, Martinique (seen from the harbor - 2005-06-15)

Climate

Temperature record

On 6 October 2010, Saint-Pierre recorded a temperature of , which is the highest temperature to have ever been recorded in Martinique.

Climate data of Saint-Pierre

Saint-Pierre has a

tropical monsoon climate An area of tropical monsoon climate (occasionally known as a sub-equatorial, tropical wet climate or a tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate) is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''Am''). The average annual temperature in Saint-Pierre is . The average annual rainfall is with August as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Saint-Pierre was on 6 October 2010; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 3 February 2005.

Population

Today

The city of Saint-Pierre was never restored to its former entirety, though some villages were built in later decades on its place. Today, the town is the seat of the Arrondissement of Saint-Pierre. It has been designated as a " City of Art and History". There are many historic remains, and a Volcanological Museum ().

References

External links

*
City of Saint-Pierre description from English edition of official Martinique website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saintpierre Communes of Martinique Subprefectures in France Populated places in Martinique Populated places established in 1635 1635 establishments in the French colonial empire