Gustavia (town)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gustavia
View over Gustavia
Coordinates: 17°53′52.47″N 62°51′2.0″W / 17.8979083°N 62.850556°W / 17.8979083; -62.850556
Country	France
Overseas collectivity	Saint Barthélemy
Founded	1785
Population
- Total	~3,000

Gustavia (pop. roughly 3000) is the main town of the island of St. Barthelemy (also known as Saint Barts). It was named after King Gustav III of Sweden. St. Barts was a French possession originally, and the area was called Carenage after the shelter it provided to damaged ships. Gustavia was founded after Sweden obtained the island from France in 1785 in exchange for French trading rights in Gothenburg. The island was sold back to France in 1878.

The Anglican Episcopal Church on the harborfront was built in 1855. Three forts built in the mid- to late- 17th century protected the harbor. The sites of Fort Karl, overlooking Shell Beach south of town, and Fort Gustave, at the base of the lighthouse to the north, are popular with hikers. Fort Oscar, at the tip of Gustavia Peninsula, houses the Ministry of Armed Forces. There is a museum at the end of Schoelcher Avenue on the peninsula. Gustavia has a few restaurants serving American, Italian, Swedish, French and other types of food. Most restaurants have a 10-15% service charge.

Gustavia has many high-end boutiques that are an essential source of capital for the island.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Comité de Liaison et d'Application des Sources Historiques (St barth's archives & history) (French)
• Histoire et aménagement linguistique à Saint-Barthélemy (French)
• Collectivity of Saint Barthélemy (Official government website) (French)
• St-Barths.com page

v • d • e Capitals of North America     Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe2 Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis Belmopan, Belize Bridgetown, Barbados Castries, Saint Lucia Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands3 Cockburn Town, Turks and Caicos1 Fort-de-France, Martinique2 George Town, Cayman Islands1 Guatemala City, Guatemala Gustavia, Saint Barthélemy2 Hamilton, Bermuda1 Havana, Cuba Kingston, Jamaica Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Managua, Nicaragua Marigot, Saint Martin2 Mexico City, Mexico Nassau, Bahamas Nuuk, Greenland5 Oranjestad, Aruba4 Ottawa, Canada Panama City, Panama Brades (de facto), Plymouth (de jure), Montserrat1 Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago Port-au-Prince, Haiti Road Town, British Virgin Islands1 Roseau, Dominica Saint-Pierre, Saint Pierre and Miquelon2 San José, Costa Rica San Juan, Puerto Rico3 San Salvador, El Salvador Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic St. George's, Grenada St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda Tegucigalpa, Honduras The Valley, Anguilla1 Washington, D.C., United States Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles4 1 Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom.  2 Overseas Collectivity or Overseas Department of France.  3 Insular area of the United States.  4 Autonomous region within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 5 Autonomous region within the Kingdom of Denmark.

Coordinates: 17°53′52.47″N 62°51′2.0″W / 17.8979083°N 62.850556°W / 17.8979083; -62.850556