A border town northwest of French Guiana, St-Laurent rests on the Maroni River opposite Albina in Suriname. At around 1848, the Administration Pénitentiaire or French department of corrections built the city to become the welcome banner of penal colonies in the country, to reduce the cost of prisons in France, and to contribute to the colony's development. Four years later, around 70,000 prisoners, including the infamous Alfred Dreyfus and Henri Papillon Charriere, disembarked and said “hello” to the settlement before being transferred to their respective cells.
Like some of its prisoners, St-Laurent was sentenced to death when Le Bagne was abolished in the ‘50s, causing the town to lose its reason to breathe. Slowly, the town's prosperity drained and its former grandeur was left into the hands of the Atlantic's punishing heat wave, until all that was left were dusty roads and decaying wooden houses with rusting roofs.
Fortunately, a French Minister of Culture came to its rescue. Acknowledging St.-Laurent's high cultural and historical value, France made a major makeover of the town during the 1980s— not to restore its former glory, but to hype its “ghost town appeal.” Thus, in Camp de la Transportation, leg shackles, execution areas and narrow cells were restored to attract tourists. St-Laurent however, is not just a former arrival point for prisoners. It is a river town inhabited by people who have a long history of protecting the environment.
Edit this article
