Cayenne (; ; ) is the prefecture and capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic coast. The city's motto is "fert aurum industria", which means "work brings wealth". Cayenne is the largest Francophone city of the South American continent.
In the 2023 census, there were 153,884 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Cayenne (as defined by INSEE),
History
The Spanish explorers who first visited the area found the region too hot and therefore chose not to settle it. The region was not colonized until 1604, when the French founded their first settlement. However, it was soon destroyed by the Portuguese, determined to enforce the Treaty of Tordesillas. French colonists returned in 1643 and founded Cayenne, but were forced to leave once more following the attacks by the local Indigenous Amerindian population. In 1664, France finally established a permanent settlement at Cayenne. Over the next decade the colony changed hands between the French, Dutch, and English, before being restored to France. Cayenne was made a municipality in 1790. It was captured by an Anglo-Portuguese force in 1809 and administered from Brazil until 1817, when it was returned to French control. It was used as a French penal colony from 1854 to 1938.
thumb|Pedestrian street not far from Fort Cépérou.
The city's population has grown dramatically over time, owing to high levels of immigration (chiefly from the West Indies and Brazil) as well as a high birth rate.
Geography
Cayenne is located on the estuary of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Ocean. The city occupies part of Cayenne Island. It is from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and from Kourou.
Distances to some cities:
- Paris: .
- Fort-de-France, capital of Martinique: .
- Nouméa, capital of New Caledonia (France) :
- Paramaribo, capital of Suriname: to the northwest
- Macapá, capital of the state of Amapá, Brazil: to the southeast
- Mexico City, capital of Mexico: to the northwest
- San Diego, southwestern city in California, United States: to the northwest
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Administration
thumb|The commune of Cayenne with its former [[Cantons of the Guyane department|cantons in the early 2010s. <small>(note: the cantons were abolished in 2015)</small>]]
Cayenne is a commune of the French Republic and as such, administered by a mayor and a municipal council. The current mayor is Sandra Trochimara, who was 1st deputy mayor under the former mayor Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth, and succeeded her as mayor of Cayenne in October 2020 after Phinéra-Horth won the local Senate race the month before (under French law, members of the French Senate cannot exercise the mandate of mayor). Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth, a former member of the Guianese Socialist Party, daughter of a former president of the General Council of French Guiana, Stéphan Phinéra-Horth, from the Guianese Socialist Party, who governed the department of French Guiana from 1994 to 1998, was supported by various left-wing parties and had been mayor of Cayenne since 2010.
thumb|Town hall
As in the rest of France, the small size of the commune of Cayenne does not cover the entire urban area of Cayenne. This has led to the creation of an intercommunal authority which groups Cayenne and five suburban communes: the communauté d'agglomération du Centre Littoral. The current president of the intercommunal authority of Centre Littoral since November 2020 has been Serge Smock, mayor of Matoury, who ran on a centrist platform affiliated with Emmanuel Macron's LREM party and defeated Sandra Trochimara, successor of Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth as mayor of Cayenne, who was also trying to succeed her as president of the intercommunal authority with the support of an array of Left-wing parties. It is the first time since 2001 that the intercommunal authority is not presided by the mayor of Cayenne. Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horthwas was president of the intercommunal authority of Centre Littoral from 2014 to 2020, and did not run for reelection due to her election to the French Senate in September 2020.
The intercommunal authority of Centre Littoral, which levies its own taxes, is in charge of refuse collection, water supply and sewage treatment, urban planning, and public transport for the of Cayenne and its suburbs.
Until 2015, the commune of Cayenne was divided into six cantons, but these were abolished in 2015 when the department and the region of French Guiana were abolished and replaced by the French Guiana Territorial Collectivity.
Population
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