It has stood the test of time and changed its purpose several times; its stone walls—the kind no longer built today—have evolved to meet the needs of each era. As long as it had a purpose, it existed. Today, completely abandoned, the magnificent Moulin à Poudre site, located in Pamplemousses, serves only as a destination for stone hunters and begs for mercy. Eugénie Sauzier-de Rosnay
It was in the 1740s that a blacksmith’s shop first sprang up on the site, which would become, in 1775, a gunpowder mill—an exception during the colonial era, when gunpowder production was nonexistent in the other French colonies. When the British captured the island, the site was converted into a prison. In 1860, new buildings were erected: an orphanage housing mainly the children of indentured immigrants, consisting of dormitories and a school. The site’s transformation was almost cyclical: after many years, these buildings were converted into a leper hospital and then, in part, into a district court.
Since then, nothing has happened, except that it has fallen into a state of total disrepair. “The stones have been looted and the site is completely abandoned,” says Jayshree Mungur-Medhi, an archaeologist and member of the Our Heritage Foundation (OHF). She knows what she’s talking about, having led research at the site since 2015. Thanks to a grant from the Mauritius Research Council in 2016–2017, followed by one from the Nelson Mandela Center for African Culture in 2020, work was progressing well… until funding dried up. Despite Jayshree’s volunteer efforts, the situation has not improved, and stone hunters continue to plunder the site. “I’ve alerted the police many times, but despite their visits, nothing has changed: the stones seem to be moving on their own,” she says.
To save this priceless site, OHF will soon launch a workshop to explore ways to preserve and revitalize it. “To move things forward, we’ve decided to involve public and private stakeholders in a broad-based consultation, in collaboration with international organizations such as ICOMOS and the Réseau des Grands Sites de France,” she explains. According to her, there is only one solution: to breathe new life into the site by making it accessible to the public. “These sites, which are found nowhere else on the islands in the region, highlight the unique richness of Mauritius,” she adds. It is becoming urgent to save this heritage!
