(on the way to) Saint-Louis^SN

This is Saint-Louis. Once the capital city, the tides of its economy have waned. The high water marks are still there to see in its architecture. But the shift of rule to Dakar, the cessation of heavy harbour trade, and the failure of the single railway line have cut Saint-Louis off. Ironically, the isolation has made it special. Although threatened, there is still a vibrant fishing economy. And the layers of its battered and faded architecture all remain: 19th-century French colonial double-storey villas, rendered in lime mortar and horsehair, their courtyards and shaded balconies designed for the tropics; 1920s Art-Deco houses; early ’30s modern civic buildings; small international-modern office blocks from the ’50s. For all these layers, and their human scale, the island was recently made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From: View from St Louis, Senegal — Paul Brislin, published in The Architectural Review