Präsidentenpalast

The Palace of the Republic, residence of the President of the Republic, is a historic house located in the Plateau district of Dakar, capital city of Senegal. Built in 1902, the Palace used to be the official residence of the Governor General of French West Africa.

The Palace, whose construction was commissioned in 1902 by Gaston Doumergue, Minister of Colonies at the time, was initially built to accommodate the Governor General of French West Africa (AOF), who was living in Saint-Louis, in the capital. It was designed by Henri Deglane.

After five years of construction, this neoclassical building topped with a tower inspired by the Paris Trocadéro, was inaugurated on June 28, 1907 as the Palace of the General Government.

The Governor General at the time, Ernest Roume, was the first to take up residence in the Palace. He was charged to move the seat of the General Government of the AOF from Saint-Louis to Dakar, and to set up the central administrative structures of this wide territorial complex.

First, Governors General and then High Commissioners were designated as heads of the Palace. As architecture and technology evolved over time, the building underwent several renovations giving it its actual shape with monumental and modest lines.

It was upgraded by the High Commissioner Paul Bechard, tenant of the premises from 1947 to 1951, and with this renovation, the Palace would welcome the President of the Republic of Senegal for the first time, Léopold Sédar Senghor, who took over the premises on September 5, 1960.

Since the independence of Senegal, the Palace of the Republic has been the Head of State’s residence and, as such, welcomed Presidents Léopold Sédar Senghor from 1960 to 1980, Abdou Diouf from 1980 to 2000, Abdoulaye Wade from 2000 to 2012, and Macky Sall since 2012.

source http://www.presidence.sn/en/presidency/palace-history