St Barthélemy / Special Interests / Historical Sites

St Barths’ appeal is more rooted in the present day and there is little visible history aside from a handful of buildings in Gustavia dating from Swedish rule. The interest of St Barths lies mainly in its activities (beaches, watersports, restaurants, shopping) and, if you are so inclined, its people, who you can watch, but the island does have a few quieter pleasures too. Here are a few things to interest you if you take the time to look around the island.

Gustavia - Capital of the island, Gustavia is a very pretty town. The houses clamber over the hillsides above three sides of a rectangular harbour, most of which has wooden boardwalks along its shores, and where anything from dinghies to some of the world’s swankiest yachts tie-up. The streets still have pockets of pretty Caribbean authenticity in the stone and wooden buildings, but the air of the place is a small busy French town in the tropics, with some extremely smart shops standing shoulder to shoulder with cafés and municipal buildings.

Gustavia is also the only place where a visible connection remains to the Swedes that owned the island for about a century. St Barthélemy was used by the Swedes mainly as a trading port and once there were warehouses all around the wharfs. Just a few of the original Swedish buildings remain now (the Wall House is the best example) as many were destroyed by hurricane and fire in 1850 and were never rebuilt. Still, some streets retain their oddly exotic sounding names: Droninggatan, Kongsgatan and Ostra and Westra Strandgatan. Look out for the small but distinctive, pyramid-roofed clocktower known as the Swedish Belfry, which was once attached to the Lutheran Church.

Instead the overlay of French culture is far more noticeable nowadays, in the shops – Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Blanc Bleu – in the general way of life, scooters zipping past open-air cafes and in more familiar street names on blue enamel plaques: Rue Général de Gaulle and Rue Jeanne d’Arc. It takes less than half an hour to walk around the town.

Gustavia harbour is very attractive as a port, but it is also a sight in itself during the height of the winter season, when a huge number of mind-bogglingly large and glitzy private yachts cruise into town. They stand shoulder to shoulder on the wharf, barely swaying in the water, but teetering on the edge of unconscionable vulgarity. On-board parties take place within metres of one another, just on a different multi-million dollar chunk of hardware. If you don’t happen to own one it is still quite impressive to see them berthed.

The island of St Barths does not have that many “sights” beyond the daily life of the islanders and holidaymakers as they go about their business. The Tourist Information Office on the waterfront in Gustavia recommends three tours of the island which vary from 45 to 90 minutes. These can be arranged through them or through any taxi driver. The island is unexpectedly attractive and the steep roads mean that views open up at every turn.

As you head east, quite a few stone walls are still visible from the old days of intensive husbandry, but only a few of the original “cases” can be seen nowadays among the island’s many private villas.

Quichenottes, traditional cotton bonnets worn by St Barthian women, have almost entirely disappeared now, but if you’re lucky you might just see one, in one of two towns to the north-west of Gustavia, called Public and Corossol, which are the most ”local”.