Matoury (; ) is a commune of

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

, an

overseas region The overseas departments and regions of France (, ; DROM) are the five departments and regions of the French Republic which are located outside European France (also known as " metropolitan France"). These overseas entities have exactly the s ...

and department of France located in South America. Matoury is a southern suburb of Cayenne, the '' préfecture'' and largest city of French Guiana. Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport, the main international airport of French Guiana, is located in the commune of Matoury. Air Guyane Express has its head office on the grounds of the airport.

Geography

Location

Matoury is located in

situated in South America. It is bordered by 5 communes: * Cayenne in the North * Rémire-Montjoly in the North-East * Roura in the East, South-East and South * Montsinéry-Tonnegrande in the West * Macouria in the North-West The city used to be called "Tour de l'Isle" because it is bordered by water : * Fouillé inlet ( in French "Crique Fouillée") is the limit both with Cayenne and Rémire-Montjoly * The river Mahury and the southern part of the river Tour de l'Île are the border with Roura * The Northern part of the river Tour de l'Île and the southern part of the Cayenne river are the boundary with Montsinéry-Tonnegrande * The Northern part of the Cayenne river is the limit with Macouria

Town planning

The town planning of Matoury is very uneven. Outside the town-centre there are some urbanized areas along the road leading to Cayenne, Macouria and Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport. PROGT, the professional lyceum in Balata is surrounded by forests. The city is urbanizing quickly as a suburb of Cayenne The main neighbourhoods of Matoury are: * Copaya and Barbadine in the town-centre * Concorde near the Félix Eboué airport * Larivot next to the Larivot harbour * Chemin de la Levée * Stoupan and Degrad on the river Mahury * Sainte-Rose-de-Lima * Balata * Cogneau-Larivot * La Chaumière

Population

The commune of Matoury experienced a rapid suburbanisation in the late 20th century, and grew from 567 people in 1967 to 31,956 in 2017. Matoury is a cosmopolitan town. It is home to Amerindians (located in Sainte-Rose-de-Lima, Cécilia and Petit-la-Chaumière), to Afro–French Guianans, Metropolitans, Haïtians, Brazilians, Surinamese, Javanese, Chinese, Maroon and people from British West Indies such as

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...

History

In 1838, during the colonial era, the District of Matoury was the third of the French Guiana colony thanks to its large and diversely cultivated areas. The main productions were sugarcane,

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

, achiote and pepper. Matoury is also home to remains of the past: * The Trio fort situated in the Levée location was designed by Vauban and was used to protect the Cayenne Isle, conjointly with the Cépérou and Diamant forts (in Cayenne and Rémire-Montjoly). * The Macaye-Duchassis habitation which used to be a cacao and sugar plantation, * The Lamirande manufacture in Lamirande, next to the PROGT, which used produced

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and rum between 1927 and 1950.

Administration

Gabriel Serville was Mayor of the city between 2014 and 2020, and deputy to the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

since 2012.

Nature

The Mirande trail is located in Matoury. The trail gives access to the Mont Grand Matoury Nature Reserve on the eponymous mountain.

Geography

Location

Town planning

Population

History

Administration

Nature

Notable people

See also

References

External links