Destination

It was founded by fifty-two freed people in 1849.

The French navy seized a Brazilian slave ship, the Elizia, and in 1849 settled fifty-two of the freed people on this shore of the estuary. They called the place Libreville, "free town", modelled on the name Freetown. Today around a third of Gabon's population lives here, in a country that is eighty-eight per cent forest.

MRMaría ReyesDestinations editor
· 9 min read
The seafront seen from the air: the left half of the frame is a smooth, greyish-brown sea merging with the sky in a white haze with no defined horizon; a strip of pale sand and dark rock separates the water from a broad dual carriageway curving along the coast; on the right, the city spreads in tight blocks of four- to ten-storey buildings in white, ochre, green and blue, with scattered office towers and no single landmark standing out, fading into haze at the back.
The seafront seen from the air: the left half of the frame is a smooth, greyish-brown sea merging with the sky in a white haze with no defined horizon; a strip of pale sand and dark rock separates the water from a broad dual carriageway curving along the coast; on the right, the city spreads in tight blocks of four- to ten-storey buildings in white, ochre, green and blue, with scattered office towers and no single landmark standing out, fading into haze at the back.Shirmy25·CC BY-SA 4.0

01 Eighteen forty-nine

The figure is worth holding on to, because it explains the scale of the starting point. Fifty-two people. Not an expedition, not a garrison, not a trading post with drawings: fifty-two people on an estuary shore, inside a territory that was, and still is, almost entirely forest.

From there to today is a leap that is hard to picture. The 2013 census gave 703,904 inhabitants in the city, and the metropolitan area is estimated at around 915,000 in 2026. The city occupies the northern shore of the Gabon Estuary, near the Gulf of Guinea, and its shape follows the waterline: elongated, hugging the sea, growing inland without a monumental centre.

A public concrete bench painted blue, seen head-on and centred in the frame, with the words "Ville de Libreville" in white letters across its solid backrest; the bench stands on a strip of uneven grass, bare and patchy in places, with exposed earth; behind runs a low white wall with tall grass and shrubs growing above it, and beyond, the sea, a uniform blue-grey, under a sky covered by an unbroken mass of grey and white cloud; the camera's date stamp appears in the lower right corner.
The city's name, written on a bench facing the water. Libreville means exactly that: free town.Manuel Dohmen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0  · CC BY-SA 3.0

02 A third of a country

The figure that most shapes the trip is not the founding one but today's: around a third of Gabon's entire population lives here. In a country with a large surface and a small population, that means the capital is not one city among others but practically the whole urban country.

The contrast with the rest of the territory is stark. Gabon has eighty-eight per cent of its surface under forest, the second highest proportion in the world after Suriname. Which is to say: almost all the people are on one coastal strip and almost all the country is empty of people and full of trees.

An aerial view of the downtown office district: at the centre rises a tower of some fifteen storeys, its façades alternating blue-green glass with grey louvred screens, topped by a flat roof with a white circular tank; to its right, a lower building with a green glazed façade and planted terraces; around them, white and ochre residential blocks of four to eight storeys, palms and broad-crowned trees in the courtyards, a perimeter wall carrying a mining company's sign, and an avenue with cars and a blue van; the sky is blue with scattered white cloud.
The business district, with vegetation pushing in between the buildings. The city has no historic centre: it has a working one.Delrick Williams / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0  · CC BY-SA 4.0

03 The city and the forest

That proportion shows the moment you leave the tarmac. The city does not fade into countryside, into fields, into villages: it stops and the forest begins. Drive out along any road and a continuous green wall appears on both sides, without clearings, reaching right down to the water's edge.

The estuary reinforces the reading. The city is on one shore; on the opposite one there is no suburb and no industrial estate, there is a national park. From the seafront you look across and what you see is exactly what was there in 1849, because nothing was ever built on it.

A wide, still river of greyish-brown water seen from a bridge: in the foreground a metal railing of four horizontal bars crosses the frame above a concrete parapet, with the road surface and a strip of dry grass below; the water fills half the frame and reflects the sky; on the far bank, from side to side, stretches an unbroken wall of dark green vegetation without a single clearing or building, its crowns cut off at a uniform height; the sky is a uniform greyish white with no sun.
The river on the edge of the city. On the far bank there is no village and no farmland: there is forest, and so is eighty-eight per cent of the country.Ballot 2 / Wikimedia Commons / CC0  · CC0

04 How to visit it

With expectations set correctly. Libreville is not a city of sights: there is no old town, no monumental ensemble, no catalogue of museums to fill three days. What there is is a long seafront, an office district, markets, and a restaurant-and-terrace life that works very well in the evening.

What there is, and what justifies the trip, is the position. The city is the door to a country that set aside thirteen national parks in one go in 2002 and has one of them directly opposite, a boat ride across the estuary. Everything you really do here begins by leaving the city.

And it is worth knowing that this is an expensive and little-visited destination with minimal tourist infrastructure. Gabon receives very few travellers and you feel it in every arrangement. In exchange, you will not share a single beach, track or viewpoint, and that is a currency worth more every year.

Worth the read?
Rate this guide
No ratings yet
Last updated · reviewed by the FlowTravel desk
MR

María Reyes

Destinations editor · Flowtravel

María looks in every city for the decision that explains its shape.

More about this destination
The dry season is the least sunny time of year.
When to go

The dry season is the least sunny time of year.

In July Libreville records 5 millimetres of rain over a single wet day: by far the driest month. And it is also the leas…
For the traveller who crosses the estuary after whales and turtles.
Made for you

For the traveller who crosses the estuary after whales and turtles.

Opposite Libreville, across the estuary, Pongara National Park protects some 35 kilometres of Atlantic coast where aroun…
Sixty per cent of Africa's forest elephants live here.
Worth knowing

Sixty per cent of Africa's forest elephants live here.

Gabon holds some 95,000 forest elephants, between sixty and seventy per cent of all those left in Africa, and the specie…
Keep reading
This city was saved by planting an Australian tree
Destination

This city was saved by planting an Australian tree

Africa
The capital moved up to the mountains in January 1902
Destination

The capital moved up to the mountains in January 1902

Africa
The entire city centre was built in six years
Destination

The entire city centre was built in six years

Africa
Image credits
  • CoverShirmy25 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Source
  • BodyManuel Dohmen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0Source  ·  CC BY-SA 3.0
  • BodyDelrick Williams / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Source  ·  CC BY-SA 4.0
  • BodyBallot 2 / Wikimedia Commons / CC0Source  ·  CC0