Port Glaud’s heritage sites brochure |10 February 2014

The Port Glaud district has produced a brochure about its heritage sites and it has been published by the Seychelles Heritage Foundation and funded by the Constance Ephelia Resort and Spa.

Port Glaud is the district with the most protected sites within its boundaries and these include two wetlands, two marine national parks and one national park.

Designed by volunteer designers Andy Jean-Louis, Marlene Dubois and Vernay Dubois the brochure is divided into five sections – Sites of religious interest, Cemeteries, Sites of education interest, Sites of socio-economic interest, and Sites of natural interest.

The brochure gives a summary of the Port Glaud history. The district is named after Captain Glaud who used the calm bays for mooring during the 18th century.

The Sites of religious interest section gives the history of how the only church in the district -- Saint Peter and Saint Paul of the Roman Catholic mission -- came to existence. It also tells about the chills that the residents believe they get whenever they pass by the Shrine of Notre Dame de Lourdes.

In the early days the residents travelled by pirogue to transport their deceased to be buried either in Anse Boileau, North East Point or Victoria as Port Glaud district did not have a cemetery. The brochure give details on how Port Glaud came about to have four cemeteries – Venn’s Town Cemetery, Trois Bras Cemetery, Thérèse Island Cemetery and The Port Glaud Cemetery that is still in use today.

Despite the strong Roman Catholic influence in Port Glaud the first school to be built in the district was by the Anglicans --  the Venn’s Town Anglican Missionary School -- and it was in 1882 that the first Roman Catholic Missionary School was inaugurated, six years after the Venn’s Town Anglican Missionary School.

There are three main socio-economic interests in Port Glaud -- the tea tavern which is today managed by the Seychelles Trading Company, the police station and the President’s Village which is a home provider to orphans and children whose parents are faced with socio-economic difficulties.

Port Glaud is a district that has a lot of natural interests. Information about the sites of natural interest covers over half of the 34-page brochure.

To name a few the brochure talks about the beaches, the islands of Port Glaud and the trails that attract many challengers.

The brochure can be useful for schools and it can be a good resource and reference for researchers and heritage admirers.

The Constance Ephelia Resort and Spa will use the brochure to promote the district and help enrich the holiday experience of guests who can enjoy a journey into the history of Seychelles and have a better understanding of the Seychellois way of life, its tradition, its cuisines and its cultural landscapes.

B.D.