Musée de la Pagerie

Cultural Heritage

Located on a magnificent site overlooking the Carribean Sea, in 1763 the Domaine de la Pagerie saw the birth of a little girl with an extraordinary destiny: Marie-Joseph-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, future Joséphine, Empress of France (1763-1814). Joséphine spent her first sixteen years at the Domaine de la Pagerie and became Napoleon Bonaparte's first wife from 1796 to 1809 and Queen of Italy from 1804 to 1809. This 18th century sugar plantation and refinery, which has been fully restored, included a vast acreage under cultivation covering more than 500 hectares, formerly known as "Little Guinea". Up to three hundred slaves were used there in cocoa, cotton, coffee, indigo and sugar cane production