HERITAGE ARCHITECTURE

There are still a few buildings from the early colonial era, built with metal frames imported from Europe, assembled on site and supplemented with local materials. Other houses are built on stilts.

The railway station. This has been refurbished since the Kinshasa-Matadi line reopened in 2015. Its steeply pitched roof, covered with old Flemish tiles, is two-thirds the height of the building. It provides real protection for passengers in the event of rain and, like most buildings dating back to the colony, the layout was designed to ensure perfect aeration and ventilation. The ticket office is accessible from the front facade and the small waiting room from the rear. Before independence, Mbanza-Ngungu (Thysville) was the headquarters of the Matadi-Léopoldville railroad. Captain Albert Thys was the driving force behind the railroad's construction, which began in 1890 and was completed in 1898.

The Mfumu Lutunu monument. Enrolled as a slave by the EIC, chief of the Besi Ngombe, one of the Kongo ethnic groups, he later crossed paths with Henry Stanley. He traveled with him to Belgium and was received by Leopold II of Belgium. He also traveled to London and New York during Stanley's lecture tour. In Kinshasa, a street in the commune of Gombe was named after him, and is now renamed Avenue du Livre.