Saint-Pierre, Martinique two valleys between the volcano and the city. The city of Saint-Pierre was never restored to its former entirety, though some villages were built in later decades on its place. Today, the town is the district capital of the Caribbean North district of Martinique. It has been designated as a "City of Art and History". There are many historic remains, and a Volcanological Museum ("Musée vulcanologique Franck Perret"). Saint-Pierre, Martinique Saint-Pierre () is a town and commune of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique, founded in 1635 by Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc. Before the total destruction of Saint-Pierre in 1902 by
Piracy in the Caribbean in Europe increasingly drove their plantation-based economies. The English had also expanded their dominion in the Caribbean and settled several new islands, including Bermuda in 1612, Antigua and Montserrat in 1632, and Eleuthera in the Bahamas in 1648, though these settlements began like all the others as relatively tiny communities that were not economically self-sufficient. The French also founded major new colonies on the sugar-growing islands of Guadeloupe in 1634 and Martinique in 1635 in the Lesser Antilles. However, the heart of French activity in the Caribbean in the 17th century remained Tortuga, the fortified island haven off the coast