Last modified: 2009-03-21 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of La Possession]](../images/r/re-poss.gif)
Flag of La Possession - Image by Olivier Touzeau, 26 January 2009
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The municipality of La Possession (26,242 inhabitants in 2006; 11,835 sq.km) is located on the north-western shore of the island. The municipal territory includes most of the caldeira (cirque) of Mafate.
The name of the municipality recalls that the island of Reunion was
proclaimed a possession of the King of France here in the 17th
century. The use was to carve the Royal arms on a tree in a civil and
religious ceremony; afterwards, nobody, especially no foreigner, could
revendicate the territory.
The exact place and date of the ceremony is not known since nothing
has been preserved from the event. The possession might have been
proclaimed by Goubert, commanding the Saint-Alexis during the
Madagascar expedition (1638), or by Governor of Mauritius Jacques de
Pronis when he visited the island (1642), or by the naturalist
Flacourt and captain Roger Lebourg, commander of the Saint-
Laurent (1649).
The place was called La Possession in 1675 and settled around 1700.
The town developed as a port of call located between Saint-Paul and
Saint-Denis and was once famous for its coffee. Made an autonomous section of Saint-Paul in 1834, La Possession was granted the full municipal status only in 1890 after repeated requests by its
inhabitants.
The local hero of La Possession is Delphine Courteaud, aged 22,
elected Miss Reunion 2008
Sources:
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 9 February 2009
The flag of La Possession, as seen hoisted on a traffic circle near the seashore, is white with the municipal emblem.
The municipal emblem seems to represents the
natural environment of the municipality.
Olivier Touzeau & Ivan Sache, 9 February 2009