"The initial project for the prison dates from 1839. It is directly linked to the preparation for the Abolition of slavery, but the actual construction only dates from 1851.
In this building were detained only the defendants and those sentenced to one month in prison maximum.
The dungeon of Cyparis is situated in the middle of the still visible ruins of the ancient city of Saint Pierre completely destroyed by the eruption of Mountain Pelee.
It is here that Louis-Auguste Cyparis survived, protected by the thick walls of his dungeon, at the terrible passage of the fiery cloud on the morning of May 8, 1902.
It is only three days after the disaster that it is rescued, partly burnt and dehydrated. Hired as a beast by the Circus Barnum in the United States he ended his life in the most total misery in Panama in 1929.
Contrary to popular belief, he is not the only survivor of the disaster: A coordinator named Léon Compère, in his cellar at the time of the eruption, escaped as well as some sailors of the boats that were stationed in the bay, all Terribly burned."