Libreville

Libreville, the capital of Gabon, began as a Roman Catholic mission in the mid-19th century, and expanded as a haven for freed slaves, hence its French name 'free city." It had a population in 2006 of 591 thousand¹ and is located southwest of Cape Estérias on the south shore of the estuary of Gabon (the mouth of the Komo River). A couple of hotels are the current tallest buildings, but construction started on a 15 story building for the Banques des Estats de l'Afrique centrale (Bank of Central African States) in 2006.²

External references

skyline of Libreville, Gabon

Historical maps

Footnotes

1. Estimate in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Gabon, accessed 3/13/2014. It was the largest city among those in Gabon, Equatorial Guinée (Guinea), and São and Príncipe in 2000 and still is today.
2. emporis.com, accessed 3/25/2014. I'm not sure when the page was last updated. I presumed the two finished hotels listed there were the tallest buildings but this isn't certain.