Classed as a French Heritage "Ville d'Art et d'Histoire" in 1990, Saint Pierre owes this distinction as much to the dramatic eruption that ravaged the city in 1902 as to the courage and talent of the inhabitants who, for over a century, have rebuilt and embellished the town while safeguarding the evidence of this terrible natural disaster.Today, the former capital of Martinique, nicknamed at the time the "Little Paris of the West Indies", can be visited by strolling along the cobbled streets to discover the restored ruins of old buildings, the musée volcanologique or the splendid Château Depaz and its distillerie de rhum.