Poudre d'Or

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Coordinates: 20 ° 4 ′  S , 57 ° 41 ′  E

Map: Mauritius
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Poudre d'Or​
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Mauritius

Poudre d'Or is a place ("Village") in the north of Mauritius . It is part of the Riviére du Rempart district and administratively belongs to the Village Council Area (VCA) Poudre d'Or. At the 2011 census, the place had 4,142 inhabitants.

history

The part of the island was already explored in Dutch times. Settlement began under French rule. The name also comes from this time. Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre wrote on September 13, 1769: "... que l'on appelle La Poudre d'Or à cause dit-on de la couleur se sable qui me parut blanc com ailleurs" (German: which called gold powder due to the color of the sand, which also appears whiter to me than elsewhere.)

Under Louis XV. the place became the seat of a canton of the same name .

The origin of the place was the domain Poudre d'Or with a size of 468 arpents , which André Oury acquired from the crown. In 1837 the property was owned by an English company, Pierson & Chapman and Barcleys, who sold it to Edmond de Chazal in 1893. He was already the owner of St. Antoine SE. The property's sugar factory had to close in 1875.

In 1944 a memorial was erected in memory of the shipwreck of the St. Géran. The ship ran onto the reef and sank in 1744 with 800 tons of cargo and 167 people off Poudre d'Ora. The accident inspired Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre to write his work Paul et Virginie , which is very well known in Mauritius. The monument is a listed building .

The St. Géran was not the only ship that failed off Poudre d'Or. On March 3, 1860, the American whaling ship Cavalier sank. Of the 124 crew members, 23 were killed.

In 1864 Poudre d'Or was connected to the northern line of the railway . As a result, the Schoënfeld, Espérance, Mon triomphe, Figette, Belmont and Petit village de l'ile d'ambre sugar factories were established in the vicinity.

In 1882 a hospital was built by the government. The seat of the administration of the Riviére du Rempart district was in Poudre d'Or until 1933 when it was moved to Mapou .

religion

The Marie-Reine church is located in Poudre d'Or. The building from 1846, which is particularly noticeable due to the mighty square church tower made of bricks, was originally dedicated to St. Philomène. The church has been Marie-Reine since 1965. Consecrated. The construction was made possible by a donation of 2 arpents of land by the widow Charles Baudot. At the same time, on the initiative of Abeé Commerford, a 2.2 arpent cemetery was created. The family graves of many old French families in the area are located here. The church belongs to the parish of Marie Reine in Goodlands . The chapel of Sainte-Claire in Goodlands also belongs to the parish.

An evangelical chapel St. Marc was built for the small Anglican community in the village. The mosque dates from 1877, making it the oldest in the northern part of the island.

tourism

Today the place is a popular tourist spot. A marina and a number of beaches are on-site, as are a variety of restaurants and hotels.

literature

  • Benjamin Moutou: Pamplemousses - Riviére du Rempart - Quatre siécles d'histoire, 2006, ISBN 978-99903-992-9-5 , SS 315-320


Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Statistics Mauritius: Housing and population census 2011 , Volume II: Demographic and fertility characteristics , p. 71, statsmauritius.govmu.org (PDF)
  2. ^ Website of the parish