Habitation Bisdary

Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Bisdary house is a former colonial plantation located in Gourbeyre, on the island of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe. Developed in the 18th century by the Jesuits, it covered 250 hectares and numbered up to 312 slaves in 1763. The nuns built two canal-powered factories there, but the buildings were set on fire in 1753 during an English attack, forcing the Jesuits to settle for repairs. Shortly before their expulsion in 1763, they sold the exploitation to Thomas Lepreux for £550,000, triggering a lengthy lawsuit between creditors and heirs.

In 1793, the property was placed under receivership by the Ministry of the Navy during the Revolution. Lepreux heirs only recovered it in 1823, after decades of litigation. Meanwhile, hurricanes in 1816 and 1825 severely damaged infrastructure, reducing crops to 24 squares of sugar cane out of 250. In 1829 Jean-Baptiste Navalles, treasurer-payer of Guadeloupe, bought the dwelling and had it restored. Although sugar activity resumed briefly in the 1840s, it declined definitively after 1850.

Today, there are only five original buildings left: the master's house, the manager's house, a box, the bonify and an oven. A stone with the coat of arms of the Jesuits, dated 1753 or 1755, is preserved on the site. Since 2007, the terraces, retaining walls and remains of the aqueduct have been classified as historical monuments. In 2018, housing was selected from the iconic projects of the first Heritage Lotto for its preservation.

The nearby Jesuit cemetery actually houses the anonymous graves of the Navailles and Bonin families, owners from 1874. Vandalized in search of treasures, these burials are now protected by the Conservatoire du littoral. The site thus illustrates the material and memorial traces of slavery and the colonial economy in Guadeloupe.

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