Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo

Brazzaville is the capital and biggest city in the Republic of the Congo. Covering 100 sq km (40 sq mi) on the northern bank of the Congo River, Brazzaville has a population of over a million people (2012 estimate), within a metropolitan area of 1.5 million people. It is situated across the Congo River from Kinshasa, a much bigger city within sight.

Brazzaville was founded in 1880 by Franco-Italian explorer, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, who gave his name to the city. It was established on the site of a village of the Bateke tribe. The local chief signed a treaty of protection which made the site part of the French Empire.It was built to compete with Belgian-controlled Kinshasa, then known as Léopoldville. To prevent the newly established city from being harassed by Belgian troops, the French stationed troops there to protect it.

Nabemba Tower in downtown Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nabemba.jpg
Author: Thomas doerfer


In the 1960s, Brazzaville was given commune status, and divided into seven neighborhoods or arrondissements. For much of the 20th century, the city became the staging ground for various civil wars between government forces and rebel forces, as well as conflicts with neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.

Visiting Brazzaville

There are flights to Brazzaville from Addis Ababa, Bamako, Casablanca, Cotonou, Douala, Dubai, Islamabad, Johannesburg, Karachi, Kigali, Kinshasa, Lagos, Lahore, Libreville, Lomé, Nairobi, N'Djamena, Paris and Pointe-Noire, among others.

Places of Interest in Brazzaville

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.