The Musée Alexandre-Franconie was inaugurated in 1901 as the "Musée local". Since its creation on September 18th 1901 by decision of the Governor Emile Merwart (1869-1960), the museum has been housed in Franconies' residence. The finality of the place has always been to introduce and promote the natural and historical heritage of French Guiana. It is approved "Musée de France". Furthermore by 2010, Franconie flat received the "Maison des illustres" label.

A Cabinet of curiosities

The Musée includes collections of various domains from natural history (French Guiana's fauna and flora), archaeology, and ethnology to local history. As other museums, the collections accumulated for more than 110 years reflect the favorite domains of all managers that have followed each other to head the institution. The profusion of objects in each rooms gives the museum its atmosphere of "Cabinet of curiosities".

Missions determined by the French label "Musée de France"

The museum's missions are determined by law :

1. preserving, restoring, studying and enhancing its collections;

2. making its collections accessible to the largest possible audience, inside or outside the museum or even on the Internet;

3. designing and implementing education and diffusion actions to ensure equal access to culture to all;

4. contributing to the advancement of knowledge and research and encouraging their spread by granting, for example, the collections access to professional and non-professional researchers

Cultural heritage sites

The departamental unit of French Guiana has a rich and wide built heritage. It gathers its efforts on the highlighting of two edifices: Fort Diamant and the Poudrière. These two fortification vestiges were restored several times and are protected by the “Monuments Historiques” French label. They represent a privileged setting for the discovery of urban, political or military history of French Guiana. Visits of these two sites are organized by the team of the Musée Alexandre-Franconie.

Félix Eboué’s birth house

Félix Eboué was French Guianese, he was born in the town of Roura but spent his childhood in Cayenne. He became the first black governor to serve in the French colonial administration. In 1940 he supported the General Charles de Gaulle in his fight on the side of the Allies. He died in 1944 in Cairo.

The family home is located in Cayenne. It has been acquired in 1989 by the department of French Guiana. The building was renovated recently and re-opened on June 18th, 2013. Today, the house offers visitors the possibility to see an exhibition about the life of this great Guianese figure.