Bibliothèque Schœlcher
Coordinates: 14 ° 36 '17.3 " N , 61 ° 4' 5" W.
The Bibliothèque Schœlcher is a public library in Fort-de-France , the capital , built in 1886/87 according to the plans of the architect Pierre-Henry Picq (1833-1911) and named after the French politician Victor Schœlcher (1804-1893) the French overseas region of Martinique .
The building, which is owned by the department of Martinique and surrounded by a garden, can be assigned to historicism . It is classified as a monument historique and is a listed building .
history
Victor Schœlcher, member of the National Assembly of Martinique and Guadeloupe from 1848 to 1850, main representative of the abolitionist movement in France, donated his extensive book collection to the Conseil Général de la Martinique because he was unmarried and childless . At that time there were only wooden buildings in the city. There were fears for the safety of the collection. Therefore, 300,000 francs were granted for a metal structure that is not so easily combustible.
The building designed by Picq to store this collection was built in 1886/87 in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris . It was put on display there and later - dismantled - shipped to Fort-de-France to be erected again on the site of the former Hotel du Petit Gouvernement . Various events, including a legal dispute with the construction company, the major fire in Fort-de-France in 1890, which destroyed most of the book collection, and a cyclone in 1891 meant that the construction work had to be interrupted several times the library could only be opened in 1893.
architecture
The building is, as built by the same architect in Fort-de-France Cathédrale Saint-Louis , a collapsible, in prefabricated erected metal skeleton . The building consists of an angular volume on a square floor plan, with a side length of 17.75 m, and a rectangular porch. The reading room is covered by a curved, pyramidal roof- like structure made of iron and glass.
Web links
- La Bibliothèque Schoelcher Web presence of the Conseil Général de la Martinique (French) in the internet archive
- La bibliothèque Schœlcher patrimoines-martinique.org (French)