Théâtre de Saint-Pierre

The Théâtre de Saint-Pierre, also known as La Comédie, was a theater in Saint-Pierre, Martinique, active from 1786 to 1902. It was a famous center of culture in the West Indies for over a century. Destroyed in the volcano eruption of 1902, its ruins became a historical monument and a site for tourists.

Originally, theatre companies from France performed in temporary localities on tours to Martinique. From 1780, there were demands to the authorities to provide the colony with a permanent theatre. At that point, there were already theatres in the cities of Saint-Domingue since the 1760s and two in Guadeloupe, and a theatre was considered to be an essential hall mark of civilisation and sophistication.