Barcarel Relay

Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Barcarel Relay is a former business built around 1880 by a bagnard in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Guyana. Located at the corner of the streets Montravel and Mélinon (now Félix Eboué Street), this wooden building and exposed bricks successively housed a postcard shop, a trade of equipment for goldsmiths, and then a hotel with bar-restaurant. It is the only example of a wood frame house with exposed brick filling in the city. In 2019, it was selected for the Heritage Lotto, and in 2020, it was listed as a Historic Monument.

In 1909, two former bagnards, Fernand Perez-Moreyra and Albert Levy, founded the Pérez & Lévy house, a multi-purpose store selling postcards, fabrics, goldsmiths' and hardware. Located in the Guihard house, one of the most elegant in the city, they are among their clients the prison administration of the bagne. After their return to the metropolis in 1917, the building was abandoned for more than twenty years before being rehabilitated as part of the Action Coeur-de-ville programme in 2018.

The architectural peculiarity of the Barcarel relay, mixing wood and bricks, reflects Guyana's economic and prison history. Its registration in 2020 aims to preserve this unique heritage, linked to the era of the bagnes and the commercial boom of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. The rehabilitation project envisages its transformation into tourist accommodation, stressing its cultural and historical importance.

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