Take An Adventure To Victoria In Seychelles
Victoria is still the largest settlement in Seychelles and its only city. Its foundation harks back to the French settler period in 1778 before it was later given its name by the British, after Queen Victoria.
Victoria opens up onto the harbor and the ocean, containing the Sainte Anne Marine National Park. The New Pier welcomes cruise ships, large freighters, and tankers, serving as the main trading port for the country. In terms of exports, Seychelles sells spices, vanilla, coconuts, coconut oil, soap, tuna, and cinnamon bark. The city’s surrounding urban area contains numerous amenities and attractions, including the International Airport, the Botanical Gardens, a university, museums, places of worship, offices belonging to tourism companies, airlines, and banks, and finally a cinema and shops.
Reasons Why You Should Visit Victoria In Seychelles
The Delicious Food
Creole cuisine in Seychelles is fresh, tasty and unlike anything you’ve ever tasted before. It’s a delicious mix of the flavours of the cuisines that make up the melting pot that is Creole culture, and Victoria is the best place to sample creole cuisine in all its forms.
The Museums & Galleries
Victoria is also home to the best museums and galleries on the islands. Most of them are clustered around Freedom Square, right next to the Clock Tower, a quaint Victorian-era replica of the clock near Victoria Station in London.
The newly renovated National Museum of History, situated in the old Law Court buildings, charters the short but intriguing history of the Seychelles and is where you’ll find the Stone of Possession, placed by the French in 1756 to claim the islands and a statue of Queen Victoria, just outside, under a shady tree.
The Festivals
Many of the biggest events are usually held in Victoria, centered around Freedom Square and the beautifully restored, colonial-era Law Courts. Victoria is the center of most of the big events of the Festival Kreol, with a grand opening ceremony that involves food stalls and performances by some of the Seychelles’ biggest music stores. Other events celebrating Creole culture include a traditional creole wedding ceremony.
Churches & Temples
As the capital of the Seychelles nation, Victoria is home to the largest and most impressive places of worship on the islands.
St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral, on the corner of Albert Street and Revolution Avenue, is the oldest chapel in Victoria. Consecrated in 1859, it is an open and airy church, perfect for tropical climes and features island-themed satin glassed windows.
The Botanical Gardens
On the southern edge of town, just opposite the hospital, you’ll find Victoria’s Botanical Gardens, a lush, 15-acre retreat from the tropical heat. Reclaimed from tangled undergrowth, set between two streams, it was laid out in 1901 by the French botanist, Rivaltz Dupont, and features both exotic and endemic plants that he collected in his travels.
The Gardens are dissected by a single path that will lead you past a spice garden, a ginger lawn and a rainforest to a Chinese garden, a gift to the city by the Chinese Government. Make sure to stop and admire the Garden’s mature Coco De Mer tree. This is the only place in Victoria to see this rare and exotic palm, famous for its salacious seeds that look like a female bottom.
The Botanic Gardens is also the best place to see Aldabra giant tortoises. Turn right onto the path just before the Duke of Edinburgh Garden and you’ll be led to a spacious enclosure where about 20 or so of these amazing creatures live.
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