Saint-Paul: Powder magazine

Construction began on the powder magazine in 1723, and it is reputed to be the oldest masonry building on Réunion. Located to the southwest of the town of Saint-Paul, the building has been listed as a historical monument since 1994.

The building

The  "powder magazine"  appears on a map dated 1732-1733. The interior of the storage building measures 7.5 m long by 4.65 m wide. Its walls are 1.30 m thick and pierced by vents, a door and a window, now blocked, opposite the entrance. The vaulted room is now covered by a gable roof. The enclosure wall is 2.60 m high and 0.60 m thick and strengthens its defences.

The archaeological survey

This operation was performed in 2018 in the light of an earlier historical study conducted in 2009 by O. Fontaine, and an archaeological evaluation made in 2013 by the DAC de La Réunion.

A test pit was used to examine the foundations of the outer wall. Two other test pits reveal the unprecedented remains of a 19^th-century lightening conductor still in place in the roof of the powder magazine. The conductor is encased in a masonry insulation conduit packed with charcoal and pumice stone pebbles. Five test pits failed to locate the guardroom and lookout marked on the 19^th century map.

Modern plaster inside the building was removed in two places, revealing multiple alterations and the transformation of the openings. The original interior floor composed of a bottom slab laid directly on the levelled rock and joined with pink mortar was also noted.