Castries, Saint Lucia

Castries is the capital of Saint Lucia, a small island nation in the West Indies. It is the largest city in Saint Lucia and home to the country's seat of government as well as its main economic center. Saint Lucia belongs to the Windward Island group, which also includes Barbados, Martinique, and Dominica. It is located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

Landscape

The city of Castries is built on a flood plain and on land reclaimed from the sea. It sits on a natural harbor surrounded by mountainous jungle. The city's shoreline has numerous harbors and beaches. Tropical reefs surround the coast of the city.

Castries is designed on a grid pattern. The city is home to many small businesses and restaurants that serve all varieties of cuisine. Ferry boats and cargo vessels can access the numerous harbors that line the city's shores. The city also serves as the main export station for the banana and coconut plantations that sit in the valleys of Saint Lucia.

Castries has a tropical maritime climate. The average temperature is 27 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit). The city's dry season typically lasts from January to April. In Saint Lucia, average rainfall and temperatures vary depending on elevation. Annual rainfall on the coast is approximately 1,300 millimeters (51 inches).

People

Approximately 22,000 people live in the urban area of Castries, according to a 2018 estimate by the US Central Intelligence Agency, and thousands more live in the surrounding areas. The country had a total population of 167,591 in 2023. The city was founded by the French and has therefore retained some of its French heritage. The majority of Saint Lucia's population is of African descent. Only small percentages of Indo-Caribbean, European, and Middle Eastern people inhabit the island. Although the official language of Saint Lucia is English, Creole is the most widely spoken language in Castries. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion on Saint Lucia, with smaller groups belonging to the Protestant faith. Obeah, an Afro-Caribbean folk religion, is also practiced to a small extent.

The annual international Saint Lucia Jazz Festival has been a popular event on the island, particularly in Castries, since 1991. Another popular annual event is Jounen Kwéyòl, or Creole Day, a cultural festival held all over Saint Lucia every October to celebrate the island's Creole identity.

Economy

Castries serves as the economic center of Saint Lucia, largely due to its sheltered harbor and the George F. L. Charles Airport, which is located 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) to the north of the city. While one of the island's main agricultural exports is bananas, a combination of competition and natural disasters, particularly tropical storms, has caused concern about the future of the industry. Other essential exports include sugarcane, coconuts, molasses, rum, essential oils, and lime juice. The city has a burgeoning information technology and financial services sector, and manufacturing industries include textiles and clothing, tobacco, chemicals, and printing. Saint Lucia's offshore banking industry and tourism industry have flourished as well, although the latter struggled during the global financial crisis that began in 2007. According to the Central Statistical Office of Saint Lucia, there were more than 1.2 million tourist arrivals recorded in the country in 2018. Two years later, in the wake of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the number of tourist arrivals had dropped to 458,943. The effect of the drop severely damaged Saint Lucia's economy, as it contracted at a rate of more than 24 percent in 2020. The nation rebounded in the ensuing years, posting an economic growth rate of more than 12 percent in 2021 and reporting more than 700,000 visitors in 2022.

Castries greatly improved its infrastructure, including its roads and water and sewer systems, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The nation of Saint Lucia is a member of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), a regional security group that has its headquarters in Castries.

Landmarks

Castries serves as the major port for the island of Saint Lucia; the port is frequented by nearly every cruise ship that sails through the region. The city is also home to the majority of the island's hotels and restaurants, and its beaches draw tourists from around the world.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Castries is perhaps the city's most widely known landmark. The church is the seat of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Castries. The cathedral sits in Derek Walcott Square, which was named after Nobel Prize–winning poet and Saint Lucia native Derek Walcott. The La Toc Battery, a fort built by the British in 1888 to guard the city's harbor, also serves as a museum.

History

The city of Castries was founded by the French in 1650. Prior to their arrival, Saint Lucia was inhabited by the Arawak tribe, in addition to other Amerindian peoples. French explorers named the city Carenage, or safe harbor. It was renamed in 1756 for Commander Charles Eugene Gabriel de La Croix, marquis de Castries. In 1814, the city came under British control, and it served as the British military headquarters for the southern Caribbean from 1888 to 1906. During the nineteenth century, Castries became an important port for the refueling and repairing of ships, and it was the first coal port in the region. St. Lucia gained its independence in 1979, and Castries became the capital of the new state.

Castries has had a history of destructive fires. In 1796, a fire razed the city and destroyed all official documents and records. A fire in 1927 burned through seventeen blocks of the city. In several instances, the only thing that stopped the fire was the sea. Castries has also borne the brunt of major Caribbean storm systems throughout its history, although the last major storm to impact the island was in 2010.

As part of a project throughout the island to increase the use and accessibility of the internet, the local administration launched free Wi-Fi service at ten public locations in the city of Castries in late 2018.

Bibliography

The Central Statistical Office of Saint Lucia, stats.gov.lc/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.

Joseph, Tennyson S. D. Decolonization in St. Lucia: Politics and Global Neoliberalism, 1945–2010. UP of Mississippi, 2011.

Moberg, Mark. Slipping Away: Banana Politics and Fair Trade in the Eastern Caribbean. Berghahn, 2011.

"Saint Lucia." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 20 Feb. 2024, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/saint-lucia/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.

"Saint Lucia." World Health Organization, 2024, www.who.int/countries/lca/en/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2024.

St-Hilaire, Aonghas. Kwéyòl in Postcolonial Saint Lucia: Globalization, Language Planning, and National Development. Benjamins, 2011.