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Roseau is the capital of Dominica, the island that calls itself the Nature Isle of the Caribbean, and the city lives up to that framing in the most literal way possible. Morne Trois Pitons National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, begins where the city's streets stop, and the world's second-largest boiling lake is 10 kilometres to the east by trail. The city itself, built on an alluvial fan where the Roseau River meets the Caribbean Sea, has a population of around 15,000 and operates with the relaxed but focused energy of a place that knows it is not going to be confused with Barbados or Antigua and is at peace with that.

The original name was Sairi, the name of the Kalinago Carib village that stood here before French colonists arrived in the late 17th century.

The French named it Roseau after the river reeds growing along the banks and built the crooked street pattern radiating from the Old Market Plaza that gives the town centre its pre-grid character. Britain took Dominica in 1761 and built Fort Young on the headland, now a hotel, and the alternation of French and English influence means the city's architecture is a genuine hybrid, part Georgian, part Creole French, with considerable additional weathering from the hurricanes that have periodically rebuilt it.