Lycée Carnot

Architecture - Pointe-à-Pitre

The original building was a hospital, which was completely destroyed in the earthquake of 1848. It was rebuilt in replica, and in 1883, became the Lycée de la Guadeloupe. Renamed Lycée Carnot in 1895, the high school was founded by Alexandre Isaac (1845-1899), a French administrator and politician who, as Guadeloupe’s interior administrator from 1879 to 1884, was instrumental in organizing state primary and secondary education in Guadeloupe. Several hundred-year-old mango trees provide welcome shade in the courtyard, and with its imposing staircase, its arcades and its cellars, the school is deservedly listed as a Historic Building.