Vieux Fort

Vieux Fort takes its name, "old fort", from a fortification that once watched the sea to the south towards Saint Vincent. Dutch sailors built a fort here. In the 18th and 19th centuries Vieux Fort was an important centre of Saint Lucia's sugar industry, until the industry declined. Local legend holds that the pirate Blackbeard used the part of town now called Black Bay to hide his loot.

The Second World War transformed the town. In early 1941 the United States Army Air Forces activated Beane Army Airfield here, with a mission to defend Saint Lucia and the wider Caribbean, and Vieux Fort became a base for American troops. Traces remain, including a tunnel from Clark Street to St Jude's Hospital in Augier that was used for storing supplies and as a quick route to the hospital. A disused wartime runway still lies north of the airport's main one.

After the war the airfield was expanded into Hewanorra International Airport — Hewanorra being an old Amerindian name for the island — and Vieux Fort became the country's main point of entry. The town also has a port just south of it, and industry has taken the place of sugar. In recent years a modern district has grown up beside the Old Town, whose colonial houses still line Clark Street.

The Vieux Fort district is divided into two parliamentary constituencies, Vieux Fort North and Vieux Fort South. The town shares the island's Creole culture: Kwéyòl is widely spoken, and the island's festivals — Creole Day on the last Sunday of October and the flower festivals of La Woz and La Magwit — are celebrated here as elsewhere.

Music comes south with the Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival, whose "Jazz in the South" programme has included concerts in Vieux Fort Square. Sport has a home in the George Odlum Stadium, a football ground for about 9,000 people built with Chinese funding and handed over in 2002, and named in 2007 after the Saint Lucian politician George Odlum.

Nature is part of local pride. The Maria Islands, the largest of the islets off Saint Lucia's coast, are a nature reserve managed by the Saint Lucia National Trust, home to a species of iguana native to Saint Lucia, a nesting ground for leatherback turtles, and the only home of one of the world's rarest snakes.

The town had about 4,600 people in 2000, and the surrounding Vieux Fort district about 15,100 in 2010; it is often described as the second-largest town in Saint Lucia. The district includes small communities such as Augier, Pierrot, Belle Vue, Black Bay, La Resource and Vige.

The economy rests on the airport, the port and industry rather than tourism. Most of Saint Lucia's tourist activity is on the west coast, and while some hotels stand in the Vieux Fort district, many visitors see the town only on the way to or from their flights. The town is also home to St Jude Hospital, the George Odlum Stadium and a mall.

The week has its own rhythm. Friday and Saturday are market days, when spices, ground provisions and fruit come in for sale, and the town also has the island's biggest fish market; the mall is open every day. Along Clark Street the Old Town keeps its historic colonial houses, some in need of renovation, while the newer parts of the town have grown around them, and Black Bay has become a haven for expatriates.

Vieux Fort eats the island's Creole food. The national dish is green figs — green bananas — and saltfish, and bouyon, a thick one-pot soup of red beans, meat, ground provisions and vegetables, is another speciality. Accra (saltfish fritters), callaloo soup, breadfruit and bakes (fried bread) are popular dishes, and the cooking combines French, East Indian and British influences, with spices such as garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.

As home to Saint Lucia's biggest fish market, Vieux Fort is the place to see the island's fish, and the Friday and Saturday market brings in the spices, ground provisions and fruit that go into Creole cooking.

Cocoa tea, a spiced hot drink, is the traditional breakfast drink, juices of local fruit such as golden apple, mango, starfruit and tamarind, and lime squash, are drunk through the day, and Piton, the pilsner brewed on the island since 1992, and rum are the drinks of the evening.