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Sainte-Croix, Mauritius

Catholic pilgrimage sitesMauritius geography stubsPopulated places in MauritiusPort LouisPort Louis District
Religion in Port Louis
Sainte Croix (Mauritius)
Sainte Croix (Mauritius)

Sainte-Croix is a suburb of the capital city, Port Louis, in Mauritius, an independent island in the Indian Ocean. It is most famous for its association with the Roman Catholic beatus Jacques-Désiré Laval, who worked in Sainte-Croix as a missionary from 1841 until his death in 1864. He is now buried at the Church of Sainte-Croix, and is thus a place of pilgrimage for Catholics in Mauritius.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Sainte-Croix, Mauritius (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Sainte-Croix, Mauritius
Mamzelle Street, Port Louis Saint Croix

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

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N -20.15 ° E 57.525 °
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Mamzelle Street

Mamzelle Street
11701 Port Louis, Saint Croix
Port Louis, Mauritius
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Sainte Croix (Mauritius)
Sainte Croix (Mauritius)
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Isle de France (Mauritius)
Isle de France (Mauritius)

Isle de France (Modern French: Île de France) was a French colony in the Indian Ocean from 1715 to 1810, comprising the island now known as Mauritius and its dependent territories. It was governed by the French East India Company and formed part of the French colonial empire. Under the French, the island witnessed major changes. The increasing importance of agriculture led to the "import" of slaves and the undertaking of vast infrastructural works that transformed the capital Port Louis into a major port, warehousing, and commercial centre.During the Napoleonic Wars, Isle de France became a base from which the French navy, including squadrons under Rear Admiral Linois or Commodore Jacques Hamelin, and corsairs such as Robert Surcouf, organised raids on British merchant ships. The raids (see Battle of Pulo Aura and Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811) continued until 1810 when the British sent a strong expedition to capture the island. The first British attempt, in August 1810, to attack Grand Port resulted in a French victory, one celebrated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. A subsequent and much larger attack launched in December of the same year from Rodrigues, which had been captured a year earlier, was successful. The British landed in large numbers in the north of the island and rapidly overpowered the French, who capitulated (see Invasion of Isle de France). In the Treaty of Paris (1814), the French ceded Isle de France together with its territories including Agaléga, the Cargados Carajos Shoals, the Chagos Archipelago, Rodrigues, Seychelles, and Tromelin Island to the United Kingdom. The island then reverted to its former name, 'Mauritius'.

Aapravasi Ghat
Aapravasi Ghat

The Immigration Depot (Hindi: आप्रवासी घाट, ISO: Āpravāsī Ghāta) is a building complex located in Port Louis on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, the first British colony to receive indentured, or contracted, labour workforce from many countries. From 1849 to 1923, half a million Indian indentured labourers passed through the Immigration Depot, to be transported to plantations throughout the British Empire. The large-scale migration of the labourers left an indelible mark on the societies of many former British colonies, with Indians constituting a substantial proportion of their national populations. In Mauritius alone, 68 percent of the current total population is of Indian ancestry. The Immigration Depot has thus become an important reference point in the history and cultural identity of Mauritius. Unchecked infrastructural development in the mid-20th century means that only the partial remains of three stone buildings from the entire complex have survived. These are now protected as a national monument, under the Mauritian national heritage legislation. The Immigration Depot's role in social history was recognized by UNESCO when it was declared a World Heritage Site in 2006. The site is under the management of the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund. Conservation efforts are underway to restore the fragile buildings to their 1860s state. It is one of two World Heritage Sites in Mauritius, along with Le Morne Brabant.

Champ de Mars Racecourse
Champ de Mars Racecourse

The Champ de Mars Racecourse (French: Hippodrome du Champ de Mars) is a thoroughbred horse race track in Port Louis, Mauritius. The Racecourse was inaugurated on 25 June 1812, by The Mauritius Turf Club (MTC) which was founded earlier the same year by Edward Alured Draper, who served in different capacities, namely as Chief of Police, Colonial Secretary, Collector of Customs, Civil engineer, Registrar of Slaves, Magistrate and Colonial Treasurer. The Mauritius Turf Club is the oldest horse-racing club in the Southern Hemisphere and the second oldest in the world. The race track follows a very selective right hand oval path and is relatively small in size, with a circumference of 1,298 meters (4,258.5 ft) and width between 12 and 14 meters (39 and 46 feet). The home-straight extends uphill and is 225 meters (738 ft) long. When Mauritius gained independence on 12 March 1968, the event including the flag hoisting ceremony was held here. Since then and for many years, the racecourse has seen the annual celebration of the accession to independence. Today, the Champ de Mars attracts tens of thousands of people on each racing day during the racing season from late March to early December and has become the ultimate meeting place for racing fanatics from all over the island and even from abroad. The track has also played a fundamental role in propelling horse racing as the most popular sport and form of entertainment among the local population.