Economy of Saint-Louis

ometers south of the city of Saint-Louis, this reserve has an area of 7 square kilometres and shelters birds and endangered species such as the Dama Gazelle, the Patas monkey and the African Spurred Tortoise.

Museums, monuments and edifices

Saint-Louis’ Research Center and Documentation Museum of Senegal offers interesting panoramas of Senegal’s history and ethnic movements over the years, expositions of traditional clothes and musical instruments, etc. Other interesting and attractive monuments and edifices are the Governor’s Palace, the Gouvernance where are located the town’s administrative offices, the Parc Faidherbe named for the French governor at the centre of town Louis Faidherbe, colonial-era hotels, the historic airport at Dakar-Bango on the mainland, the Grande Mosquée, the Faidherbe Bridge that connects the island to the Langue de Barbarie and the Gaol and Servatius bridges that connect the island to the continent.

Events and festivals

Saint Louis is famous for its urban culture. The heritage of the signares lives on in the city’s many festivals and its cultivated sense of public display, and it is helping Saint-Louis emerge from decades of neglect. "Fanals", which are night-time processions of giant paper lanterns, take place at Christmas time.

The Saint-Louis Jazz Festival is the most important jazz festival in Africa. Jazz first became popular in the 1930s when records produced in Cuba were aired on the radio. After WWII, visiting U.S. GIs popularized jazz bands and by the 1950s local groups had adopted a "Cuban" sound. Another music festival, 1, 2, 3 musiques, exhibits various genres of music.

The Festival Métissons, held for the first time in 2010, is a grassroots music festival organized by local communities and small businesses