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Origin and history

The statue of Empress Josephine, located on Place de la Savane in Fort-de-France, was a white marble memorial erected in 1859 in homage to Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814). Directed by the sculptor Vital Gabriel Dubray, she represented the empress in imperial coat, holding a medallion of Napoleon I. The pedestal, decorated with bronze plates, commemorated key dates of his life: birth (1763), marriage with Bonaparte (1796), coronation (1804) and inauguration of the statue (1859). Funded by a local subscription and a gift from Napoleon III, it was inaugurated on three days of grand festivals in August 1859.

As soon as it was erected, the statue was controversial because of the slavery of Josephine's family and its presumed role in Napoleon's restoration of slavery in 1802. In 1974, it was moved to the edge of the park by the municipality of Aimé Césaire to reduce its visibility. Decapitated in 1991 by an anonymous commando, it was classified as a historical monument in 1992 despite its degraded state. His pedestal and commemorative plaques remained intact until its total destruction in July 2020 by anti-colonial activists of the Red-Vert-Noir collective, in the context of global decommomination movements.

The destruction of the statue, which occurred without police intervention despite a controversial prefectural order, was condemned by Prime Minister Jean Castex as an act of vandalism. In 2025, the Fort-de-France Correctional Court released the defendants, ruling that the action was part of a political activist framework. This monument, symbol of memorial tensions in Martinique, illustrates the debates on the decolonization of public space and the re-evaluation of historical figures related to slavery.

The initial project dates back to 1837, but it was under the Second Empire that Napoleon III launched the initiative, offering even Carrara marble for sculpture. Dubray was inspired by a bust of Josephine directed by François Joseph Bosio, who was considered very resembling. The monument, surrounded by royal palm trees and an open gate, initially occupied the centre of the Savane, where, according to legend, a cannon ball fell near it in 1790. Its inauguration in 1859 brought together the local and regional elites during the gratifying ceremonies, marking the climax of its glorification.

Urban redevelopment and anti-colonial demands have gradually marginalized this monument. His movement in 1974 and his beheading in 1991 reflected the rise of criticism against the celebration of characters associated with colonial oppression. The destruction of 2020, taking place after that of the statue of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, was part of a global dynamic of questioning the symbols inherited from colonization, amplified by events such as the death of George Floyd in the United States.

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