Saint-Louis – miasto zaszczepione. Europejski model urbanistyczny i kulturowy na gruncie afrykańskim

Saint-Louis, the former capital of French West Africa, is a unique example of instilling European urban ideas on African soil. The city originated from the seventeenth-century factory of European merchants, located on the island in the mouth of the Senegal river. In an urban space emerging from scratch, French urban planners were free to create a colonial city. Saint-Louis is a model testimony of the confrontation between two logics of urbanization: the African (spontaneous) one and the European one (contained in rigid rules). The core of the colonial city has survived to the present day, setting an example of how European designs are adapted to local natural and social conditions. Specific spatial arrangements and social structure which are a derivative of 300 years of European domination have survived in this African city to this day.