Yamoussoukro: Côte d'Ivoire's Political Capital, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace and Its Story

Many people assume the capital of Côte d'Ivoire (in West Africa, French-speaking, the world's largest cocoa producer) is Abidjan, but it is not. The official political and administrative capital is Yamoussoukro, inland, while Abidjan is the economic capital and still carries out many government functions. The city is best known for a church even larger than St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

View of Yamoussoukro from the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace — Yamoussoukro seen from the Basilica of Our Lady of PeaceMickaël T. · CC BY 2.0

Why Yamoussoukro

Yamoussoukro lies about 240 km north-west of Abidjan and became Côte d'Ivoire's official capital in 1983. One important reason for choosing it was that it is the birthplace of the country's founding president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny.

The city's name has its own story: the suffix "kro" means "town" in the local Baoulé language, and the village, originally called N'Gokro, was later named after a queen called Yamoussou. Today it is the country's third most populous city, with about 420,000 inhabitants in the 2021 census — considerable growth on the roughly 360,000 counted in the previous census.

For business people, this "one country, two capitals" arrangement matters: the official capital is Yamoussoukro, but Abidjan is the officially recognised economic capital and still retains many government functions. Before visiting a public body, it is best to confirm where your counterpart's office is actually located. The Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny (INP-HB), founded in 1996 and also named after the founding president, is based here.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace

The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace (Basilique Notre-Dame de la Paix) is a Catholic minor basilica, built at remarkable speed between 1986 and 1989 to a design by the Lebanese-origin architect Pierre Fakhoury. It was consecrated by Pope John Paul II on 10 September 1990.

Item	Figures
Dome height	149 m, larger than the dome of St Peter's
Colonnade	272 Doric concrete columns, the tallest about 31 m
Capacity	18,000 inside the church, 300,000 on the square in front
Stained glass	About 8,400 m², made in France

Its overall appearance broadly follows St Peter's: a dome rises above a Latin-cross colonnade, with a broad square in front and two further colonnades along the front edge of the square. The whole complex covers about 30,000 m², including a clergy residence and a villa. The stained glass was made by France Vitrail International, about 18,500 panes in total. Guinness World Records lists it as the largest church in the world, and it is currently run by Pallottine clergy from Poland.

The story behind the basilica

The basilica was funded by the founding president and donated to the Catholic Church on completion. According to records, one of the Pope's conditions for consecrating it was that a hospital be built nearby; that hospital was completed in 2014 and opened in January 2015. In one stained-glass window depicting Jesus's entry into Jerusalem, you can also see the president himself kneeling beside Jesus — worth looking out for on your visit.

One line for Asian readers

To understand Côte d'Ivoire's "one country, two capitals" set-up, take a trip to Yamoussoukro: standing beneath that enormous dome makes it clearer than any explanation.

References: Britannica: Yamoussoukro Basilica; Wikipedia: Basilica of Our Lady of Peace; Wikipedia: Yamoussoukro