Description of the attraction
The Frank A. Perret Museum is located at the top of rue Victor Hugo in the city of Saint-Pierre, which was called "the little Paris of the Antilles". During the recent renovation of the museum, its name was changed. Now this museum is simply called the Volcanological Museum.
The museum was founded in 1932 by the American volcanologist Frank A. Perret, who came to Martinique to conduct research on the Mont Pele volcano. Perret participated in the restoration and cleansing of the city, which suffered from a volcanic eruption in 1902. Then all the inhabitants of Saint-Pierre died, except for two people and the crew of one English ship that managed to leave the harbor. The museum contains evidence of that terrible eruption. Here you can see, in particular, the old bell of the local cathedral, twisted by an explosion and high temperature. It is installed in the center of a separate room in this small museum. The bell, made in the 18th century, after the eruption of the volcano was sent to the Vatican to be convinced of the destructive power of the elements. It is surrounded by fragments of statues from the cathedral and the church at the pier, as well as various objects found on the ruins of houses or on ships sunk in the harbor: porcelain tiles, soldered forever due to a hot cloud of gas that fell on the city, glass bottles, partially melted musical instruments, scissors, irons and even the remains of completely charred food.
There is also a collection of photographs, prints and drawings showing what the city of Saint-Pierre was like before the volcanic eruption.
