During the colonial era, a training center was set up in Fréjus to accommodate soldiers from Asia and Africa. The idea of ​​recreating a missiri, a type of religious temple, was an initiative of Captain Abdel Kader Mademba in 1928.

Senegalese snipers crafted this replica but unlike the original designed with mud, this one was made of concrete and covered with provençal ochre, a local dye. Completed in 1930, the building served as a place of worship, today it’s an amazing monument owned by the French Ministry of Defense and belongs to the Museum of the Navy of Fréjus.

Prior to this temple’s construction, French-Indochina soldiers constructed the Hông Hiên Buddhist pagoda, a spiritual refuge for the Vietnamese, who in 1917 fought alongside the French during World War I.