Brazzaville
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Brazzaville
Brazzaville
(from the name Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza), a city, capital of the People’s Republic of the Congo. It lies on the right bank of the lower course of the Congo River, on the lakelike broadening of the river at Stanley Pool, opposite Kinshasa. In 1965 the city, including its suburbs, had a population of 156,000.
Brazzaville was founded in 1880 by de Brazza as a French military post. It acquired political and economic significance at the turn of the 20th century. From 1905 to 1910 it was the administrative center of the French Congo and from 1910 to 1958 of French Equatorial Africa and Middle Congo. During World War II it was one of the main African strongholds of the Free French movement, headed by de Gaulle. From 1960 it was the capital of the Republic of the Congo and from December 1969 of the People’s Republic of the Congo.
Brazzaville is the center for transport, trade, industry, and finance of the country. It is a river port and the point of origin for upstream shipping on the Congo River. It is connected by railroad and highway with the seaport Pointe Noire, and it has an airport of international importance (Maya-Maya). Various factories in Brazzaville manufacture spun and woven goods, ready-made clothing, matches, and cigarettes; mills produce beer, artificial ice, butter, and fruit drinks and mineral water. There are also other enterprises. Fish are dried and smoked, and there are ship-repair yards. Handicrafts include wood carving and artistic ceramics. The Institute of Central African Research and the Pasteur Institute are located there.
The central part of Brazzaville lies on the high terraces of the right bank of the Congo River and includes three districts—Plateau, Chad, and the residential area, Aiglon— with administrative and apartment buildings in the contemporary style (the cathedral church of St. Anne, 1949; the Air France building; the airline’s hotel, the stadium, the Lycée; a bank designed by the architect H. Chomette is a four-story building with a high portico, resting on flat rectangular supports and a facade in the form of a loggia). Modern dwellings are characterized by roofs with a large overhang, which shelters the walls from the sun. Along the river are the commercial quarters, the Plain, and the industrial area, M’Pila. On the outskirts are huts of the local type and low-story prefabricated apartment houses.