Saint Lucia Island / Nick Lido in Castries

Produced an Featured by Nick Lido's Travel Journal. Castries with population of 10,634, is the capital city of Saint Lucia, a country in the Caribbean. Castries was founded by the French in 1650 as "Carenage" (meaning safe anchorage), then renamed in 1756 after Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, marquis de Castries, commander of a French expeditionary force to Corsica that year. The earlier settlement across the harbour at Vigie, started in 1651, was abandoned after a devastating hurricane in 1780. From 1803 to 1844 the British made the town a major naval port and built fortifications on Morne Fortune.