Castries

Castries has burned down four times, most recently in 1948, which is why the capital is mostly modern concrete rather than the wooden French Caribbean town it once was. Two things survived and are worth the walk. Derek Walcott Square, named for the poet who was born a street away and won the Nobel Prize in 1992, keeps a samaan tree several hundred years old and a few surviving wooden buildings on its edges. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception beside it was painted inside by Dunstan St Omer, whose murals give the biblical figures Caribbean faces. The market has run since 1894.

History

A group of 40 Frenchmen led by de Rousselan founded a fort by the Carénage river in 1650, Governor Baron de Micoud moved the capital to the south side of the harbour in 1769, and in 1785 the village of Carénage was renamed Castries after the Marquis de Castries. The first steamship, the RMS Solway, arrived in 1841, and the town was rebuilt after major fires on 15 October 1805, 6 April 1813 and 19 June 1948 (Wikipedia, Castries).

The main sights

• The cathedral murals - biblical scenes painted with Caribbean faces.
• Derek Walcott Square - the poet's square and its ancient samaan tree.
• The Castries market - trading since 1894, busiest on Saturday.
• The surviving wooden buildings - what the fires left.

When to go

December to April is the dry season. Saturday morning is the market at full pitch and the best time to be in town. Cruise days fill the waterfront and the market with visitors; weekdays without a ship are quiet.

Practical notes

The city is not attractive: four fires and concrete rebuilding left little, and most visitors pass through to the cruise terminal or the airport. Hustling around the cruise berth is persistent. The market is the reason to stop, and it is a working market rather than a craft one. Ordinary caution applies after dark.

Nearby

Marigot Bay is twenty minutes south; Pigeon Island is north.

Key facts