Young and old tour Bel Air heritage sites |15 April 2013

The Bel Air cemetery was the first stop which the guides from the National Heritage research section toured along with the groups.

The cemetery, which is now a national monument of Seychelles, was the first official burial ground established in Seychelles.

It was opened in 1778 by the French settlers after their establishment on Mahé known as L'Establissement du Roi.

The cemetery’s tombs contain the remains of some of the most famous personalities in our history such as corsair Jean-François Hodoul and the nine-foot giant Charles Dorothée Savy, supposedly poisoned at the age of 14 by those fearful of his height.

Lavwar located opposite the cemetery was the next stop for the visitors.
The traditional wash-house at Bel Air, locally known as lavwar, is a historical and cultural monument.

It was constructed in 1910 for patients of the maternity ward and was used by these individuals until the year 1924.
Residents of Bel Air then used the lavwar for some years until the facility became dysfunctional.

The communal laundry was restored a few years back by the National Heritage research unit (NHRU) in the then Ministry of Local Government, Sports and Culture (MLGSC), in collaboration with the Bel Air district administration.

For some time now the lavwar is being used for other bad purposes by certain individuals and vandalism is common there.

They also visited sites such as the Grande Croix, the Rochon dam before touring several other important places at Sans Soucis.