The Iracoubo church: an Easter excursion

Form Kourou you follow the N 1 road (Route Nationale 1) heading to Saint Laurent du Maroni for roughly 1 hour. Once you have crossed the Counamama river and passed the police control after the bridge, you will have reach Iracoubo: the village is limited to a single straight street sided by few poor houses. Nothing special. But what will strike you, looking a bit further, is the oversized church with its red roof at the end of the village.

The church was build in 1887 by a French priest, Father Prosper Raffray, with the financial support of the local population (ca 500). At the time the access to the village was only possible by the river, the road did not exist.

What makes in fact this church outstanding is the indoors decoration. First because the fine paintings are remarkable at first glance, second because it was the masterpiece of a prisoner: Pierre Huguet, "matricule 23.492"!

The picture below gives a flavour of the extremely high quality of this naïve art.

A second look shows the freedom the artist took with the representation of the Christian symbols. In a classical church the central nave is sided by two others representing the Trinity. At the Iracoubo church, the left and right naves are dedicated to the Mary  and Joseph.

A look at the ceiling of the central nave confirms this impression:

Finally, even more strange, is the painting below which gives in fact a rare representation of the "father and Child", telling likely more about the own artist's history rather than the wish to perform an academical “Madonna-like” work.

After his death in Cayenne in 1936, Father Prosper Raffray was buried  in Iracoubo in recognition for what he accomplished for the local people. 

About Pierre Huguet, the artist, we don’t know in fact much, but his beautiful painting remain in Iracoubo.