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圣·德尼
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Réunion is officially an Overseas Department of France, representing one of the last remaining colonial possessions in the world. The island's ties with France have a considerable influence on local life and French nationality is a source of pride for most of its inhabitants.
The island also boasts fabulous exotic scenery, an active volcano and a semi-tropical climate. It bears the traces of Indian, African and even Chinese cultures.
The history of Réunion is very similar to that of Mauritius, as it was colonised by the French, who established coffee plantations on the island in the second half of the seventeenth century and brought African slaves to work them. At the end of the eighteenth century the island was the scene of several uprisings and the runaway slaves, known as Marrons, took refuge in the interior, establishing many villages and so becoming its first explorers and colonisers. Réunion also came under British control for a short period, during which time its new rulers introduced the large-scale cultivation of sugarcane, which brought the island great prosperity. Slavery was abolished in 1848 and indentured Indian workers were recruited to solve the ensuing labour shortage. However, the prosperity of this period was ended by competition from Caribbean sugarcane, the introduction of sugar beet to Europe and the opening of the Suez Canal, which made Réunion's position less strategic for trade.
Following the Second World War the island acquired the status of a French Département d'Outre-Mer (DOM) and was consequently able to revive its economy with European agricultural aid. Réunion is characterised by great ethnic diversity: Creoles account for 40% of the population, while Europeans (particularly French) constitute the second ethnic group, with a 30% share. They are followed by "Malabars" - Hindu Indians - (25%), Chinese (3%) and Muslim Indians (2%).
Roman Catholicism is practised by 70% of the inhabitants, although in recent years there has been a mingling of the religions of the minorities, who increasingly participate in Catholic rites as well.
Réunion's capital, Saint-Denis, closely resembles any other French city in terms of architecture and its main financial institutions, shops and businesses, administrative offices, university, museums and theatres. It was named by Governor Regnault after a ship that was wrecked on the coast in 1668, although it did not actually become a proper city until around 1738, when it was officially declared the capital of the island.
The nineteenth century was a golden age for Saint-Denis, which grew rich on the proceeds of the sugarcane trade. The city's beautiful mansions - several of which can still be admired in Rue de Paris and the adjoining streets - date from this period. However, towards the end of the century, demand for sugarcane plummeted and the city went into rapid decline that ended only after the Second World War, when it became the capital of the French overseas département.
The city centre is laid out as grid on a coastal plain that slopes gently towards the sea. The centre of urban life is the promenade, known as the Barachois, which boasts many cafés and a pétanque pitch.
Avenue de la Victoire is the main street and, along with the Rue de Paris, home to the most sumptuous buildings of the capital, almost all of which are adorned with painstakingly decorated colonnades and lambrequins, the carved wooden festoons embellishing doors and windows.
The shopping area is situated around the partially pedestrianised Rue Maréchal Leclerc. The city centre is also home to a fine botanical garden and the nearby Musée d'Histoire Naturelle, where visitors can admire many endemic animal species, most of which are now extinct. The varied attractions of the city also include two museums of modern and contemporary art: the Musée Léon Dierx and the Artothèque. The capital's main places of worship are also very interesting and include the handsome church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Délivrance (1893), whose principal attraction is the statue of Saint Expédit, permanently bedecked with red flowers, ribbons and other offerings by those who ask for intercession or have received grace. The city centre is also home to a small but picturesque Hindu temple and the Grand Mosquée, which is the centre of religious life for the local Muslim population. |
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