During the colonial era, a training center was established in Fréjus to house 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 built this replica, but unlike the original made of 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 and today is a striking monument owned by the French Ministry of Defense and belongs to the Navy Museum in Fréjus.Prior to the construction of this temple, French soldiers in Indochina built the Buddhist pagoda of Hông Hiên, a spiritual refuge for the Vietnamese who fought alongside the French during World War I in 1917.
