Papeete tourist information

Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The commune (municipality) of Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, in the administrative subdivision of the Windward Islands, of which Papeete is the administrative capital. The Windward Islands are themselves part of the Society Islands.

The urban area of Papeete had a total population of 127,635 inhabitants at the 2002 census, 26,181 of whom lived in the commune of Papeete proper.

The area that now constitutes Papeete was first settled by the British missionary William Crook in 1818. Queen Pomare IV moved her court to Papeete and made it her capital in the late 1820s, and the town grew into a major regional shipping and transportation center. Papeete was retained as Tahiti's capital after France took control of the Tahitian Islands and made them a protectorate in 1842. Half of Papeete was destroyed by a major fire in 1884. A major cyclone caused extensive damage to the city in 1906.

Herman Melville was imprisoned in Papeete in 1842; his experiences there became the basis for the novel Omoo. Paul Gauguin journeyed to Papeete in 1891 and, except for a two-year period in 1893-1895, never returned to France. Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry Adams also spent time in Papeete in 1891.

Papeete's international airport, Faa'a International Airport, was completed and opened in 1962.

In September 1995, after the government of Jacques Chirac went ahead with plans to test a nuclear device off the shores of Moruroa Atoll, there was heavy rioting for three days in Papeete. The international airport was nearly destroyed by rioters, and 40 people were injured in the general chaos. (Similar rioting occurred after another French nuclear test in the same area in 1987).

In 1983, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the Papeete Tahiti Temple here because of the large number of members in the region.

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