Habitation Zévallos

OVERVIEW

The Zévallos estate on Grande-Terre grew sugar and later distilled rum. Its steam mill dates from 1844 and the director's house — a prefabricated iron-and-pink-brick structure with lace-iron colonnades, often attributed to Gustave Eiffel's workshops though that origin is disputed — was erected between 1868 and 1871. Under Auguste Duchassaing de Fontbressin the estate was worked by indentured Indian labourers. Production ceased in 1901. The house was inscribed as a monument historique in 1987 and classified in 1990, and was selected for the national heritage lottery in 2020. It is privately owned and partly open to visitors.

HISTORY

The estate passed through some twenty owners from the early 19th century, from the Zévallos and Chazelles families through Raphaël Wachter (1902), a workers' syndicate (1905) and the Sainte-Marthe factory (1927), to its present owner since 1999.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Zévallos is Guadeloupe's best-known "haunted house". Local tradition, carried by the regional tourist office and press, speaks of figures at the windows, footsteps, and cries heard from the building at night — attributed variously to the enslaved, to the Indian workers, and to former owners. Visitors report the same. No investigation or contemporary record supports any of it; it is recorded here as the island's living folklore about a real and difficult place.

VISITING

Between Le Moule and Saint-François. The ground floor and grounds are open on set days; the upper floors await restoration.