Statue of Empress Josephine

History: The first stone of the structure of the monument, built by the architect D.Manguin, was laid on July 12, 1856, in the center of the Savannah garden. The statue was inaugurated on August 29, 1859. In the early 1970s, intellectuals criticized the fact that, according to them, Napoleon Bonaparte had reestablished slavery in the French colonies in 1802 at the request of his wife Josephine. Thus, during the redevelopment of the Savannah garden in 1974, the municipal administration of Aimé Césaire moved the statue to the left edge of the park, at the edge of the rue de la Liberté, without its large granite base and its beautiful gate. worked. This move, which is not devoid of political ulterior motives, makes the statue less visible and responds to the resentment of part of the population. This loss of love culminated in September 1991, when the head of the statue disappeared, probably the work of vandals who subjected it to the fate of the guillotine, from which it narrowly escaped. The statue has since been left as is. The statue and its base are registered as historical monuments on December 31, 1992. In July 2020, the statues of Joséphine de Beauharnais and Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc which were destroyed by a group of anti-racist activists.

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