The crocodile lake in front of the Presidential Palace is the other attraction in town. Starting from a small town, it became in a few years a capital born out of Houphouët’s grandiose dreams: large avenues with little traffic or even houses along them connect the Basilica, the House of Deputies, the Foundation Félix Houphouët-Boigny for Peace Search, the President hotel and the Presidential Palace.
In that sense, the basilica reflects well the rest of Yamoussoukro. I was nevertheless saddened to learn that this immense building had been filled by pilgrims only thrice since its inauguration. But if you look at it from an historical point of view, weren’t many of the cathedrals and churches in Europe, which are now admired as masterpieces of gothic architecture and testimonies of the medieval spirituality, built following the prince’s whim while the neighboring population was living in abject poverty? Even if the official version is that the expense was entirely paid from the first President’s “personal funds” and that the property was later donated, together with a brand new hospital, to a foundation managed by the Vatican. Was such a sumptuary expense shocking in a country still very much marked by poverty? And in a relatively small city which had only been elevated to the rank of administrative capital because it was the birthplace of the Father of the Independence? For sure. At the foot of this dome, I experienced mixed feelings. I thus went up under Christianity’s highest dome – 158 m– using the elevator hidden within one of the columns, and walked out on the balcony to admire the perspective and the city under the church. It seems that Houphouët-Boigny wanted it larger than its Roman model, but that after negotiations with the Vatican, an agreement was found so that the area would be smaller but the dome higher.
Consecrated by Pope John-Paul II in 1990, by its dome, its encircled plaza outside and the baldachin inside it looks very much like St. The church was built by order of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the first President of Côte d’Ivoire, from the Independence in 1960 until his death in 1993. That is when you discover the impressive dome of the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, one of the largest religious building in the Christian world. In a little bit more than two hours, one reaches the hill on top of which sits the President hotel. The highway that goes from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro is fast and well maintained.
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