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

Saint-Pierre (, ; ; Martinican Creole: ) is a town and commune of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique, founded in 1635 by 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 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 Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, a French trader and adventurer, as the first permanent French colony on the island of Martinique.

The Great Hurricane of 1780 produced a storm-surge of which "inundated the city, destroying all houses" and killed 9,000 people.

Eruption of Mount Pelée

The town was again destroyed in 1902, when the volcano Mount Pelée 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, and Léon Compère-Léandre, 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 of the town had it blocked off to prevent people from leaving during an election. 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 (french: nuée ardente) was not yet understood, the danger was perceived to be from lava flows, which, it was believed, would be stopped by two valleys between the volcano and the city.

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 ( Köppen climate classification ''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 ().

See also

* Co-Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption, Saint-Pierre
*Communes of the Martinique department
*Pompeii
*Victor Cochinat (1819–1886), French journalist
* Georges Hébert (1875–1957), French naval officer who witnessed the destruction by the volcano on the island in 1902, and went on to develop a physical training method from his experience

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