Set of real estate called house Saint-Jacques

Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Fonds Saint-Jacques dwelling, located in Sainte-Marie in Martinique, was founded in the 17th century by the Dominicans after their victory against the Kalinagos in 1659. The widow of Governor Jacques Dyel of the Parquet offered them this estate in thanks, where a chapel dedicated to Saint James was built, giving his name to the site. By 1670, the dwelling had spread over 200 to 400 hectares, exploited by African slaves for the cultivation of sugar cane, with a beast mill.

In the 18th century, under the direction of Father Jean-Baptiste Labat (1694–105), the dwelling experienced a major expansion: 120 slaves, 100 hectares of canes, and a record 190,000 pounds of raw sugar. Infrastructure was modernized (watermelon in 1766, aqueduct), and slave labour reached 900 individuals in 1788. The French Revolution led to the seizure of the estate as a national property in 1793, although the Dominicans continued to administer it until 1810.

After the definitive abolition of slavery in 1848, housing became a reception centre for engaged workers (Indians, Chinese) before declining in the 19th century. In 1934, the estate was divided into 230 lots for local farmers. Ranked a historic monument in 1980, the site has since 1987 been home to a departmental cultural centre, focused on orality and Antillean traditions, with a research laboratory and exhibitions.

The chapel, rebuilt in 1769, illustrates colonial religious architecture: a nave made of volcanic stone, a ship's roof, and a Saint James shell on the pediment, symbol of the Dominicans. The 1992 excavations revealed a slave cemetery, where the bodies were buried in beers, a particular feature of their status as religious property. The slave cells, aligned along the "negro-case street", were built in reeds and earth, reflecting their precarious living conditions.

Today, the 2 hectare site includes the ruins of the sugar factory, the purging, the monastery transformed into an exhibition hall, and the chapel. He perpetuates the memory of slavery through story-telling visits and scientific projects, such as the work of the ethnomusicologist Monique Desroches (1978–79) on Indo-Martinica rituals. The cultural centre, labeled in 2001, remains a place for artistic creation and the transmission of Antillean knowledge.

External links