Reunion Capital

Saint-Denis, known as a prefecture or administrative capital, is the city in which Reunion bases its government and the majority of the population. Located at the island's northernmost point, Saint-Denis was settled in 1669 by Etienne Regnault who arrived on the island five years earlier with the French East India Trading Company and a small band of settlers. The culture of the city is a mixture of African, European, Asian, and Islamic practices.

The population of Saint-Denis city is 146,985 and the metropolitan area is home to 202,993 citizens in total. The city is the most populous of any in the French overseas departments. Ethnic groups include African, Chinese, European, Indian, and Malagasy, many of whom speak the local creole language. The city is served by the Roland Garros International Airport and Saint-Denis is a sister city of Nice, Metz, and Tangier.

The Leon Dierx Museum, also featuring an art gallery, as well as the Jardin de l'État public gardens and museum are two of the premier attractions of the city. The scenery is impressive in Saint-Denis and the Le Barachois seafront park and the La Roche Ecrite summit provide great vantage points. The city is also home to the oldest existing mosque on French soil, the Noor-e-Islam mosque. The only major producer of beer on Reunion island, Brasseries de Bourbon, produces the majority of alcoholic beverages from the country as well as importing overseas beverages.

The city features a tropical monsoon climate with a hot and humid wet season occurring from December-April and a warm, dry season from May-October. The warmest months of the year in Saint-Denis are January and February with average high temperatures of 30.1 degrees Celsius (86.2 degrees Celsius) and average lows of 23.5 degrees Celsius (74.3 degrees Fahrenheit). January and February are also the wettest months of the year with 278.6 and 351 millimetres (10.96 and 13.82 inches) of precipitation on average. The driest months of the year are June and October with slightly over 7 days of rain per month on a yearly average.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018