OLD COURTHOUSE

The courthouse was the first project entrusted to the architect Ali Tur sent to Guadeloupe by France to rebuild the buildings destroyed by the 1928 cyclone. Work began in 1930. The inauguration of the new palace took place on 30 June 1932. The choice was made to rebuild it on the site of the Palais de Justice designed in 1843 by Edgar Quin. Ali Tur had one objective: to preserve the base of the old building and its volumes. He took care to adapt it to the aesthetic criteria of the time, and took into account the climatic conditions and the risk of earthquakes by opting for a material that was still little used and little known in the West Indies, but resolutely modern: concrete. It should be noted that the original furniture in the courtrooms was also designed by Ali Tur. The building reflects his conception of modern architecture and, at the same time, adapted to tropical conditions with a reinforced concrete structure to resist bad weather. The building's two-storey galleries open onto the central patio, which was airy and had a pool with a water jet to cool the atmosphere at the time. Today, the pool is no longer in good condition. The various premises housed, until October 2018, the courtrooms, the court registry and the magistrates' offices.

The justice services have moved to a building with contemporary architecture erected behind the sub-prefecture. The new building is three times larger in order to place justice at the very heart of the city of Pointe-à-Pitre.