HSE Large Reserve XO 43 °
Crossed by the Lézarde river, the Habitation Saint-Etienne is part of the typical landscape of the north of the island of Martinique, with its exuberant vegetation and the ubiquity of water. Saint-Etienne was built on the bases of "La Maugé" a sugar factory whose land stretched at the beginning of the XIXth century on more than 400 hectares, from Gros Morne to Saint Jospeh. In 1882, Saint-Etienne was bought by Amédée Aubéry, a young industrial captain who became one of the emblematic figures of the Martinique economy. He transformed the sugar factory into an agricultural distillery and embarked on the modernization of infrastructures. He enlarged the factory and equipped it with a magnificent façade punctuated by 28 windows with arched arches that ensure optimal ventilation to the building. Railway lines are installed on the site of the distillery: draft animals draw wagons carrying sugar canes. Hydroelectric power is provided by the Lézarde River through a stone channel that crosses the Creole garden. In 1909, the estate passed into the hands of the Simonnet family, which developed the activity of the distillery until its decline in the late 80s. The estate was bought in 1994 by Yves and José Hayot who relaunched the Saint- Etienne and undertake the restoration and enhancement of the architectural heritage of the dwelling. The distillery is now one of the last and most beautiful examples of the mastery and aesthetics of late nineteenth-century industrial architecture in Martinique. Its restoration is being completed.