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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Mont-Carmel dwelling, founded around 1650 by the monks of the order of Carmel, is the oldest sugar plantation in Guadeloupe. Located in Saint-Claude on the island of Basse-Terre, the religious set up a farm with hydraulic mill and boxes for slaves. The house of the masters, built in 1726, and the aqueduct of 1765, testify to this colonial period.

In 1772, the Carmelites left the house and rented it to the merchant Louis Botrel, who revived sugar production after repairs. In 1783, the plantation was sold to François Vaultier de Moyencourt. After the French Revolution, slavery was abolished and then restored, and the house changed hands several times, especially within the Dain family, which transformed it into a coffee shop in 1920.

The Mont-Carmel residence was listed as a historic monument in 1987 for its master house, its planted driveway and the remains of its aqueduct. The buildings of the sugar factory, in ruins, recall the economic and social history of Guadeloupe, marked by slavery and colonization. The property, now private, preserves architectural traces of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In 1848, the definitive abolition of slavery marked a turning point for housing, which passed into the hands of various owners before being transformed into coffee and then into a banana plant in the 20th century. Cyclones, like Cleo in 1964, damaged some structures, but the site remains a major testimony of the Guadeloupe colonial heritage.

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