SWEDISH BELFRY (SWEDISH BELFRY)

Close to the sub-prefecture, the stone and green lazured wood bell tower reminds us of the pointed roofs of Scandinavian churches. It is one of the few buildings to have survived the centuries almost without damage. In 1799, as part of the redevelopment of the city, which saw its streets paved, the Swedish Crown offered Carénage, which is now called Gustavia, a bell tower specially prepared in Stockholm. The installed bell was named Sofia Magdalena (a nod to the Swedish Queen Mary Magdalene of Denmark). It was cast in Stockholm and transported to the port of Saint-Barthélemy. The sound of the bell warned of deaths on the island, and sounded the curfew set by the Scandinavians in the morning at 6am and in the evening at 8pm. If you think that in the 1800's there were hardly 6,000 souls on the island, you can better understand the role that this bell tower must have played in the daily life of its inhabitants. The church that was adjacent to the bell tower disappeared in the 19th century. The sound of the bell no longer rings in the town since the town hall replaced it with a clock in the 1930s. On August^1, 1995, the bell tower was registered as a historical monument. The bell tower had been placed higher than the church so that the sound would carry farther and to prevent it from falling on the houses in case of cyclone. In 2017, once again the power of the winds damaged the roof of the bell tower. The devastating Hurricane Irma did not spare it but everything is back in place.