Ecomusée de Marie-Galante

Set on the heights above Grand-Bourg, Habitation Murat is an early 19th-century sugar plantation that today houses the Ecomusée des Arts et Traditions Populaires de Marie-Galante. The Conseil général has restored the buildings and grounds, opening a site of memory that traces three centuries of Guadeloupe's colonial sugar history alongside the harder story of slavery. Founded in the mid-17th century by a Champagne notary, the estate was acquired in 1807 by Dominique Murat from Aquitaine and grew into the most powerful plantation in Guadeloupe by 1839 — until the abolition of slavery in 1848 and competition from larger sugar mills changed the island's economy.